Iron Man: Reborn
by David Golightly
Summary: This ongoing series is set directly after the madness with Onslaught. What if Tony Stark stayed dead? Who would wear the armor?
1. The Iron Mask: Part One

The Heroes are dead.

After turbulent times, humanity comes together to lick its collective wounds, choosing to mend their ways and look to the future. This is what happened when Pearl Harbor was attacked, when JFK was assassinated, and when the Skrulls invaded Earth. It is human nature to band together and face the odds, no matter what the obstacle is.

Then there was Onslaught.

The greatest and most powerful beings on the planet joined together to face down a threat of such magnitude that its very existence struck fear into every man, woman, and child on Earth. The fabric of reality was at stake. Never before had the world's protectors faced such a menace.

Friends and enemies alike joined to resist the seemingly unstoppable creature. The glorious battle raged on and on, the tide of which swiftly shifting back and forth. Their fight, while long and often wrought with doubt, eventually ended with the villain defeated…but at a price. The legendary champions that had stood to protect humanity through its most difficult trials were gone. Once more the people were compelled to gather and mourn, desperate for a light at the end of the tunnel.

Long live the Heroes.

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #1 written by D. Golightly

"The Iron Mask – Part One of Three"

* * *

"Ms. Arbogast, please move tomorrow's lunch appointment to Thursday."

James Rhodes sat back in his office chair, letting out a small sigh as he released the intercom button. It was almost five o'clock and nearly everyone in the building would be clearing out soon, returning to their homes and families. Rhodes, however, would probably be sifting through paperwork for another few hours.

He spun around in the cushy chair to face the floor-to-ceiling windows at the back of his office. As Vice President of Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. the veteran black man was privy to a number of perks, a decent view counted among them. Whenever he looked out at the parking lot beneath, the foreground of an expansive lawn that bore various impressive floral arrangements, he more often than not caught his eyes drifting to the looming sky overhead. He let out another tiny sigh as his thoughts flushed back to a time when he would find himself among the clouds.

As the former hero known as War Machine, Rhodes had been in the thick of things every time some fanatical despot or crazed supervillain reared his ugly head. He had fought alongside gods and titans against the nastiest evils the world over. However, many of those fellow heroes had perished several years ago and he just couldn't fill the void that was left behind.

Besides, there were other matters that needed his attention that were just as important. Tony Stark, his friend, confidant, and creator of his War Machine armor, had been among those that gave their lives and his company needed to be taken care of. It disgusted him slightly at how quickly the Fujikawas had swept in and taken over Stark Enterprises, their actions bordering on disrespect. He fought the takeover, of course, and had won a spot as the VP, much to the chagrin of Rumiko Fujikawa's father. As President, Rumiko held majority control within the company but apparently gave Rhodes enough respect to take his opinion to heart.

Tony Stark may be gone but his ideals and memories lived on through his work. Rhodes felt he owed it to his friend to keep his technology in the right hands and away from the wrong ones. He had witnessed firsthand how terrible things could be if one of Tony's many enemies acquired his tech.

"Wish you were still here, buddy," Rhodes said aloud to no one.

The huge plasma screen television embedded in the opposing wall had been on since he came into the office around seven. Even though it was muted he was still bothered by the various news images of rampaging psychos that were sometimes thwarted by what heroes remained. Even though the last crisis had been stopped the world moved on and so did the bad guys.

Rhodes felt the frustration and angst build up within him again. The world needed its champions back. Maybe he had made the wrong decision when he had taken off the armor for the last time. Maybe he should have let the Fujikawas take the company. Maybe he should have done things differently.

Maybe.

Rhodes shook his head, attempting to clear his thoughts. He had other things to concentrate on, like approving research into new anti-gravity engines that didn't cost a small fortune to power. At least their R&D department hadn't slacked ever since Tony had passed. Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. was still among the top developers in the world, if not the best.

James Rhodes swiveled back to face his desk, leaving dreams and possibilities behind him. There was work to be done.

* * *

**ONE MONTH LATER**

"This way, Governor!"

The reporters all shouted requests at the governor of New York, a stout man that was actually respected by the community at large. He had followed through on his promised goals when he had been elected and the voters loved him for it. He waved from atop his limousine, the upper portion of his torso sticking through the moon roof. As part of his campaign to get reelected he had opted to tour the state while kissing babies and shaking hands. His aids told him he didn't need to, that they loved him enough already, but he wanted to remain rooted in reality without letting his head get too big. As politicians went he was an honest one, a black sheep among the rest of the flock.

As a former Hollywood actor, his opponents had thought he wouldn't last a second in the position, but he had worked hard to prove them wrong. He wasn't the first celebrity to take office, anyway, and he probably wouldn't be the last.

Dozens of camera shutters snapped open and closed as the reporters continued to jump for his attention. He smiled at a few he recognized, nodding his head in answer to interview requests. He would have rather walked down the street but his security advisor insisted he remained in the limo at all times. Ever since the Heroes had died the people were in need of someone to look up to and the governor knew he could be that person. He wanted to be on the same level as them but he also had to admit that a man in his position was sometime a target. With the Heroes gone, the super-criminals largely ran around unchecked and he was better safe than sorry.

"Governor! How do you feel about SHIELD's tough initiative on wanted supervillains?"

"Over here, Governor! Can you give us some insight into your campaign?"

"Will you be endorsing vigilantes like Spider-Man, Governor?"

The questions, like the camera shutters, never seemed to slow down. He didn't mind; it kept him in the court of public opinion. The moment that started to dwindle—

"Governor, get down!" one of his armed bodyguards yelled over the crowd.

A yellow beam of raging energy struck the back of the stretched car, rocking it back and forth as the driver fought with the wheel for control. The governor fell forward, his chest crushing against the front of the moon roof, the air in his lungs letting out in one burst. The governor tilted his head back to see what was going on and nearly soiled himself from what was transpiring.

The three bodyguards that had been walking beside the car in case crowd control was needed had all drawn their weapons and were firing into the sky. Their firearms, while potent against normal humans, seemed useless against what was soaring down upon them. Sun glinted off the metallic sheen of the figure dropping down, the one who had fired an energy attack. The governor recognized the assailant from various old news reports from years ago when a group of villains had come close to beating the now dead Heroes.

The purple and green armored Beetle swooped down low, his cybernetic wings flapping furiously behind him. Bullets fell harmlessly to the ground after his thick armor absorbed their momentum, a sight that disturbed the bodyguards. The Beetle was coming in fast, his gauntlets pointed over his head at the guards.

"Mr. Governor," the Beetle boomed through his helmet, "I've been sent to tell you that your next term in office has been canceled."

With blazing speed the armored villain came up to the bodyguards, their ammunition long since depleted. His vibrating cybernetic wings granted him precise control over his velocity, which he displayed by coming to a complete stop in midair mere inches from the guards. The Beetle grabbed their empty weapons and crushed them easily in his gauntlets.

"Take a hike," the Beetle commanded arrogantly. "Me and your boss need to have a private conversation. None of that sacrificing yourself bull. Get lost."

The bodyguard furthest away from the armored villain jumped on top of the limo, throwing himself on top of the governor in an attempt to push him back inside the car. The other two bodyguards, apparently ignoring the Beetle's warning, lunged forward with fists swinging.

"Ha!" the Beetle laughed as the first guard broke his hand by trying to punch the bug-inspired helmet. "I even gave you guys a warning. You must be the dumbest Rent-A-Cop in the city to think you'd be able to take me down. I've stood against the Avengers, for crying out loud! Ya know, back when they were still alive."

The Beetle dealt his own blow across the face of the first bodyguard, knocking him down for the count. The second guard, having jumped back after seeing his compatriot crack several bones in his fist, hesitated on whether or not to make a run for it.

"Stay down!" the guard on top of the limo ordered the governor. With thoughts of bravery swimming through his head, the bodyguard flung himself off of the stretched car and onto the back of the Beetle, wrapping his arms around the villain's neck.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." The Beetle raised his opened palm and blasted the guard in front of him into unconsciousness. Gently bending his knees the Beetle looked back over his shoulder at the remaining guard floundering on his back. "Hope you got insurance, pal."

The Beetle straightened his legs and sprung up into the air, carrying the guard with him high over the spreading crowd's heads. The guard tightened his grip but the Beetle's maneuvering was too much for him. He felt his fingers start to slip despite the amount of fight he still had in him.

"You're about to go splat, pal," the Beetle mocked. "Told ya you were dumb. Don't worry, though, the governor will be joining you soon."

The Beetle unsheathed his wings again as he commanded the shell on his back to open up. The lid of the shell pushed the bodyguard's arms out and away, knocking his grip completely loose and sending him falling through the air. The man screamed in pure, unadulterated terror as the unforgiving concrete quickly rose up to meet him.

The wind whipped around the bodyguard's face as he plummeted. Memories of his life flashed before his eyes, a sure sign that this was the final end for him. His wife, his daughter…he would never see them again. He closed his eyes, hoping that the memories would stop since he didn't want to see his wife's beautiful face when he met his demise.

He felt a sharp pulling on his leg and suddenly his fall stopped. He hesitated to open his eyes, scared that the Beetle had swooped down to catch him and play with him some more. There was indeed an armored hand clasped around his ankle, but it wasn't varying shades of purple and green…it was red and gold.

"Relax, I've got you," his savior said. "Try not to wiggle, I'll have you down in a second."

The crowd collectively gasped and camera shutters started to flick open and shut once more. The unbelievable had seemingly happened as none other than Iron Man hovered down to the ground, gently dropping the bodyguard on the pavement. The glistening rays of the sun bounced off of his thick armor, a unique design that had never been seen before. Lines of energy were etched into the helmet and forearms, while the signature pentagon shape of his uni-beam protruded from his chest plate.

One of the Heroes had returned.

"I don't know who the Hell you are," the Beetle called down from above, "but you ain't Iron Man. He's dead, rotting in the ground, six feet under, pushing up daisies, worm food…I think you see where I'm going with this."

"Surrender now," Iron Man ordered through the electronic speaker in his helmet.

"Yeah, right. Like that's going to happen."

Iron Man shot back up into the air, his boot jets propelling him as fast as a jet plane. The Beetle swooped straight down, his fists outstretched to ram into Iron Man, his own velocity increasing rapidly.

_KRA-KOOM!_

Metal scraped against metal as the two armored figures slammed into each other, sending a shock wave rippling throughout the crowd below. Both men were knocked away from each other, both now furiously trying to correct their trajectories before the other. The Beetle's cybernetic wings batted up and down in an effort to break through his momentum and put him right-side up while Iron Man's gyroscopics spun and whirled to do the same.

"Son of a…" the Beetle murmured. "What's a guy got to do to fulfill a simple hit contract, huh?"

The Beetle flipped over in the air just as he came close to a five-story building, kicking off of it with his armored feet and using the new forward momentum to catapult himself across the sky. Iron Man had also recovered and was heading straight for the Beetle, his boot jets leaving a smoky trail in his wake. The crowd underneath the sparring couple still hadn't fully dispersed, regardless of the immediate danger over their heads.

Still a good distance between them, the Beetle let fly another searing blast of energy similar to the two he had fired before. The yellow light erupted from his gauntlets and cut through the air toward Iron Man, it's intensity almost blinding the spectators below. Iron Man, his helmet display advising multiple courses of action, simply spun out of the way without relaxing his speed. The blast harmlessly dissipated into the atmosphere a mile away as Iron Man raised his own gauntlets to fire at the Beetle.

The Beetle took evasive maneuvers, his wings vibrating faster than a humming bird's. Up and down the villain soared in a seemingly haphazard diagonal pattern. Iron Man's targeting systems quickly calculated trajectories and locked on to the Beetle, alarms chirping inside the helmet. As Iron Man flew closer he tilted his body upward to raise himself slightly higher than his opponent and then opened his glove, his own energy attack lashing forth from his palm.

A powerful repulsor blast swept over the Beetle, its concussive force knocking him off balance in the air and sending him back into the same building he had bounded off of. Iron Man continued the assault in a steady stream of torrential energy, slowly coming in closer to his quarry as the repulsor rays held the Beetle in place. The concrete side of the building started to crack under the pressure but the Beetle was effectively stuck.

"Ah!" the villain whined. "Let up! I give, I give!"

"Do you surrender?" Iron Man asked, the ambient light from the repulsor rays washing over his red and gold armor.

"Yeah, whatever, come on all ready! This…ow, this hurts! Just arrest me or something. I surrender."

Iron Man let the repulsor blast subside as he reached for the smoking husk of the Beetle. Just before the armored avengers clasped his bulky fingers around the Beetle's wrist the villain kicked free of the wall again and slammed into Iron Man's midsection. The pair grappled in the air, the alloys of their armors scraping against each other.

"Now I know you aren't the real deal," the Beetle mocked. "Golden boy never would have fallen for that. What say we peel away the iron mask and take a peek, huh?"

Iron Man buckled forward to gain leverage against his opponent and slammed his elbows into the Beetle's back, driving them between his shoulder blades. The Beetle's grasp wavered but he held onto Iron Man's waste tight, locking his fingers together as he controlled their flight. The Beetle was aiming for another building, hoping to drive Iron Man through the walls.

Bullets started pelting the duo again. "Cut it out!" the Beetle screamed at the bodyguards underneath that had apparently found their backup pieces. "You guys really are stupid. You're even sh—AH!"

Iron Man's red knee guard slammed into the Beetle's chest, finally knocking his grip loose. The armored avenger palmed the back of the villain's skull and forced it back down into his other knee guard, crunching the yellow lenses of the Beetle's helmet. Stuffing his fingers under the Beetle's wing shell, Iron Man spun the would-be assassin around in circles briefly before letting him go, now sailing into the side of another building.

The Beetle tried to change his course but his shell had been damaged and his wings couldn't slip out entirely. He crashed through a third-story window, sending shards of glass raining down into the empty alley.

Iron Man hovered beside the broken window. "Do you surrender?" he asked apathetically.

"G…go to Hell…" the Beetle feebly replied.

Iron Man leveled his gauntlet at his foe, ready to unleash another wave of repulsor rays. The cool metallic exterior held no emotion, no personality, no clues as to who was inside. The Beetle watched as the iris in Iron Man's palm opened, readying to fire.

A wave of wind slammed against Iron Man as the noise of rotor blades filled his audio receptors. Channel Four News had scrambled their twin helicopters as soon as their reporter on the ground had called the situation in. Now the twin crafts circled dangerously close to the building, various cameras mounted on them zooming in and out, recording the whole scene.

"Back away!" Iron Man yelled over the noise of their rotors. "He's still—"

The Beetle launched himself back through the window, throwing his fist into Iron Man's head as he passed. The mysterious hero was knocked back through the air, desperate to correct himself again before it was too late.

"See ya around, Iron Jerk," the Beetle laughed as his cybernetic wings carried him further and further away.

Iron Man, having righted himself, flew after the Beetle but one of the news choppers cut him off. A reporter was leaning out the side hatch, rattling off inaudible questions at the hero. The Beetle had gotten away.

Iron Man looked down to see that the crowd was still yelling for his attention, their cameras all clicking away snapshot after snapshot. He turned his attention back to the news helicopter, paused, and then ignited his boot jets to rocket over the helicopter. Within seconds he was out of sight.

The governor had watched the entire scenario intently from the safety of his black limousine, wondering what was happening. His bodyguards ripped the side doors open to see if he was still okay and the reporters tried to push their way to the front of the crowd, all of them ready to bombard the governor with questions. Was the legendary hero thought dead really back? Who had hired the Beetle? Had this been a publicity stunt?

Was Tony Stark alive?

* * *

"Don't give me any excuses!" Rumiko Fujikawa yelled. "Give me facts, not guesses. Get your sources straight, double check, then ask yourself if you want to be wrong the next time you report to me."

The President of Stark/Fujikawa, Incorporated slammed the phone down as hard as she could, almost breaking the cradle in half. Rumiko brushed a few stray strands of hair out of her eyes and took in a deep breathe, trying to regain her composure. All twelve lines on her phone had been ringing off the hook since the start of business, and every single call had been about the armored red and gold mystery man that had appeared over the city yesterday.

"I'm having the tapes from Channel Four sent in," James Rhodes commented. He had entered her office several minutes ago but had to wait while she took several more urgent calls from different departments within the company. He knew better than to cross Rumiko before the time was right. "There's footage all over the damn place flooding the internet. Mostly amateur video, though, that could easily have been doctored. Everyone with a camera phone in the vicinity uploaded it to YouTube. We'll have something authentic to work with once the Channel Four stuff gets here."

"Damn it," Rumiko swore. "It's a total shit storm out there. This thing has gotten out of control. How could we have not known something like this was going to happen?"

"Something like what?" Pepper Potts asked. "We don't even know what it is we're trying to control yet. All we know is someone looking like Iron Man stopped the Beetle from killing off the governor. For now that's a good thing."

Rumiko met eyes with Virginia "Pepper" Potts. The two women had never gotten along too well having once both been after the same man. Tony Stark had meant a great deal to both women at one time or another, but instead of finding common ground they had held a bitter resentment toward each other. However, Pepper had been one of the best assistants Rumiko had ever seen and when Rhodes had hired her as the company's Public Relations Director she had no reason to object. The business always came first.

"It's a good thing that a hero closely associated with this company's history just randomly appeared, got into a brawl with a known supervillain, and then disappeared?" Rumiko stated rhetorically. "How is that good? How is it good that we don't have clue one about anything other than what the press is giving us? Damn it, we're on the sidelines when we should be the referee!"

"As far as anyone knows, we are," Pepper replied calmly. She always kept her demeanor, something she quickly learned was important from a PR perspective. "The company's position will be that our R&D department is close to a major technological breakthrough and has been coordinating tests over the last few weeks, using the airspace we have reserved over our facility in Manhattan. During my press release an hour from now I'll enunciate that the facility in question is only six blocks from the area our armored friend appeared in. Coincidentally, the incident with the Beetle happened during a scheduled test period. Your father is en route from Japan and we're waiting on his arrival to make another announcement."

"When will that be?" Rhodes asked.

"Two days," Pepper replied, smiling slightly. "That should give us enough time to collect more information."

"Nice bullshit, Pepper," Rumiko said with a smirk. "Any of it true?"

"All of it, except for the insinuation that we know who is wearing the armor."

Rumiko crossed her hands behind her back, took in another deep breathe, and focused her attention on the stack of reports piled on her desk. "So the general public will think that Stark/Fujikawa, Incorporated has created a working prototype of the Iron Man defensive armor. Do we have any research to back this up?"

"We still own all of Tony's original schematics," Rhodes pointed out. "His legal team was pretty slick. We still have control of the patents."

"Legal," Rumiko replied. "What do they say about this? Do we have likeness rights to worry about? I mean, was Tony arrogant enough to actually buy his own appearance?"

Before either Rhodes or Pepper could answer there was a slight commotion outside the closed office door. It wasn't anything more than the shuffling of feet and Rumiko's secretary telling someone that they weren't allowed in without an appointment, but it was enough to catch all their attention. Against the secretary's advisement, the door to Rumiko's office was briskly opened by an older man smoking a cigar. His black suit was obviously custom tailored and he carried himself like a man of action. Each of them instantly recognized the man as the head of SHIELD, his signature eye patch a dead giveaway.

"S'cuse me for the interruption," Nick Fury said, "but I think we need to talk. Now."

* * *

He sat upon a throne of solid gold, quietly listening to his underling's report. He had seen the footage from the West, with their arrogant bantering and speculation. He knew they had no actual facts to attest to, just their inane ability to make half-educated guesses. He much preferred to hear the elements of the story from his own sources.

The thin man that had pledged his life to him uttered his final statement, bowed, and quietly left the room. The master shifted uncomfortably on his throne, tossing the new information around in his head and viewing it from different angles. His genius was largely recognized throughout the world as he was once a respected business official and fanatical industrialist. It was a simple, exercised manner in which he viewed something from every possibility.

Finally, he arose from his seat and walked down into the center of the great hall that had at one time or another housed a plethora of great and primal forces. Torches lined the walls and support pillars, casting amber light all around the chamber. Bits of the light caught the intricate rings that adorned his ten fingers as he walked.

He had been surprised to hear of his hated enemy apparently returning from the grave. When the mighty and catastrophic event had played out years ago, and the world's admired Heroes had been slain, he admittedly was disheartened to learn that Iron Man would not die by his hands. Now, there seemed to be a chance to change that, even if it was an imposter.

The Mandarin held his growing anger in check, and planned.

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** Fingers are being pointed left and right concerning the identity of the new Iron Man while Pepper and another face from Tony's past try to find answers for themselves. Plus, the Mandarin strikes! 


	2. The Iron Mask: Part Two

"So…how do you think it went?"

A man of medium build, yet excellent physical condition, sat before a row of enormous computer banks, his feet lazily perched on top of the console. His dark hair was barely visible against the dim lighting of the large warehouse and his features were chiseled, easily noticeable with his clean-shaven face. The vast computer array before him displayed streaming data of all sorts, ranging from weather conditions to seismic tremors. Fixed on the center screen was a floating head, stoic in its own features and placed against a black and green background.

**"You are referring to yesterday's inaugural debut?"** the floating head asked the man.

"Yeah, what do you think? Did we make an impression? Turn any heads? I mean, we got everyone's attention, right?"

**"Undoubtedly."** The head represented an intricate computer matrix with it's own artificial intelligence, however, for as complex as it was it rarely displayed emotion. **"I have been monitoring media networks since the event. There do not seem to be any indications that the whereabouts of the Beetle or Iron Man are known."**

"Perfect."

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #2 written by D. Golightly

"The Iron Mask – Part Two of Three"

* * *

"We've got questions of our own," James Rhodes said casually to the head of SHIELD, Nick Fury. "In fact, you were on the top of my list of people to call." 

"Mine as well," Rumiko Fujikawa stated harshly. "What are you doing here, Fury?"

The legendary war hero that was now in charge of the world's foremost privately sponsored superteam straightened his tie and shut the door behind him. Rumiko's office was simple, only housing things of function. The room was large and impressive, as the president of a major corporation is privy to, but Fury closed the gap between them with only a few strides. His jet-black hair had traces of gray streaked throughout but his real age was hard to guess from appearance alone. He looked only a few years older than Rhodes when in fact he could easily be his grandfather, thanks in no small part to the Infinity Formula.

"Looking for answers," Fury replied sternly, his cigar mashed between his teeth. "Some fruitcake looking like Iron Man stops an assassination attempt on the governor yesterday and disappears without a trace. I've had my boys looking into things but I figured why not ask the devil's advocate herself?"

Rumiko crossed her arms over her chest, obviously irritated at the war hero's comments. They had clashed several times over the last few months, mostly on Fury's authorization to access Stark/Fujikawa, Inc.'s secure network databases that housed their research and development. Even though Tony Stark was dead his company still flourished as one of the top weapons and electronics designers in the world.

"Cut the crap," Rumiko blurted out. "More than likely you're here to throw us off about your own involvement."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Fury replied defensively.

"Under your guidance," Pepper Potts chimed in before Rumiko or Rhodes could respond, "SHIELD has been turned from a global police organization to little more than a pack of mercenaries. You've lied to the general public, lied to the White House, and lied to us. Don't bother refuting it, Colonel, we've done our homework. The simple fact that you have someone dressed up as Thor on your payroll casts a watchful eye on you over the matter of an Iron Man impersonator."

"I'd be careful of the accusations you're throwing around like water balloons, young lady," Fury advised. The starch demeanor he held in place since entering the office suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a tiny smirk, as if his entire personality had just shifted from a dictator to the high school football captain. "You've done your homework, have you?"

Pepper nodded. As the company's head of public relations she made it her business to know about every outside force that had something remotely to do with Stark/Fujikawa. Once she had been a wallflower, even bashful at times…but since the Heroes all passed the world had changed dramatically. She couldn't afford to let someone get the better of her anymore.

Fury cleared his throat and continued. "Then you'll know that SHIELD has done theirs, too. In fact, you might call this little visit a pop quiz. Mister Rhodes…where were you yesterday when Iron Man showed up on the grid?"

"I…what?" was all Rhodes could say back.

"What are you implying, Fury?" Rumiko demanded. Her attitude at the Colonel's involvement was going downhill fast.

Fury pulled the chewed cigar out of his mouth and rolled it around between his fingers, the smirk on his face enlarging. "Just that our friend Rhodey here isn't exactly a novice when it comes to piloting one of your mechanical tuxedoes. So, where were you?"

"In my office, catching up on paperwork like everyone else around here. We run a business, Fury, not a personal attack force like you."

"Can anyone verify that?"

"Does anyone need to?" Rumiko asked, her eyebrows raising slightly as she spoke. "Do you have any evidence that someone from this company was involved in what happened yesterday?"

"Just call me skeptical," Fury answered. The war hero placed the cigar nub back in his mouth and turned to leave, apparently satisfied that he wouldn't get any solid information out of the three Stark/Fujikawa employees. He opened the door and turned back to face them before leaving. "There's a warrant out for the arrest of whoever was inside that tin can yesterday. I don't need to tell you that harboring a wanted man is like signing a warrant for yourself."

Fury exited the room and closed the door behind him, placing a barrier between the back of his head and Rumiko Fujikawa's anger-filled eyes.

* * *

"Things just aren't adding up," Pepper informed her husband, Harold Joseph "Happy" Hogan. "I mean, just take a look at this." 

Happy leaned over his wife's shoulder to get a better look at the screen. After the meeting with Fury she had bumped into him in the hallway, a pleasant surprise that was a welcomed relief from the intensity of the morning. Happy had once worked for Tony Stark personally as his chauffer and assistant, but after Onslaught, Happy had refused to work for the Fujikawas. They argued periodically over Pepper's role within the company but in his heart Happy knew his wife was only staying on to make sure Tony's hard work wouldn't be misused. The couple had gone through rough patches throughout the years, even citing a divorce, but eventually they always reconciled.

Happy wanted to take her out to lunch but given the current crisis concerning someone masquerading as a dead hero that had a deep history with the company, she had to decline. She hated to blow him off but there really were more important things to take are of. As soon as the meeting with Fury had ended she wanted to turn everything upside down and investigate under every rock, beginning with general documentation. Happy had waited patiently with her in her office while she typed away at the keyboard, just now apparently finding some useful information.

The screen showed various data in the form of streaming numbers, numbers that had very little meaning to Happy. "I'll need a calculator to take a look at this. What exactly is it?" he asked.

"Strangely enough, shipping manifests," Pepper replied. "Apparently over the last six months several shipments have been delayed going to and from this building."

"So? Someone down on the dock must have fudged the reports to make up for something he did. It happens. All the shipments got to where they were going, right?"

"Yeah," she answered, her voice dropping off as she pondered the situation. "But the problem is why were they delayed in the first place? The equipment that was being transported wasn't staplers and paper clips, either. In every case the shipment in question contained sensitive and secret projects from our R&D department."

"That's a red flag if I ever saw one," Happy responded. The muscular build he had as a former boxer still held strong, towering over Pepper sitting in front of him. "Any idea who was responsible?"

"Actually…yes. Jim."

Happy raised an eyebrow at his wife. "Rhodey? C'mon, he knows better than to mess around. What reason would he have for messing with project shipments?"

"I know, I know. But each shipment manifest was accessed with the same security code, a code that only two people knew about: James Rhodes and Tony Stark. When Tony gave up being Iron Man years ago and passed the armor on to Jim he created the code in case of emergencies for whenever one of them needed access to something quickly. After Tony died we had his encrypted files cracked and that's how I know about it."

"But why would Rhodey keep everyone in the dark?" Happy asked, confusion showing in his voice and on his face. "I mean, that's not like him at all."

"The weird thing is Fury just accused him of having something to do with this impostor," Pepper commented. She scrolled down through the numbers on the computer screen for the third time, shaking her head. "I'll have to check these dates against some other things. I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure all these projects are ones that Jim signed off on. Like this one, the Mark IV Anti-Grav unit."

"That would come in handy for making a new tin suit," Happy replied. "You know, Pepper…what if it's not Rhodey at all? What if it's Tony?"

Pepper spun around in her chair, fixing her best stare on her husband. "What are you saying?"

"Well, this is a world where people coming back from the dead isn't all that crazy. We're both on a first name basis with guys that can crush a car with their bare hands. You said yourself that the only people who knew that code were Jim and Tony. If it wasn't one then it could be the other, right?"

"Maybe," Pepper admitted. "But it could just as easily be one of Tony's enemies. He had quite a long list. It wouldn't be the first time a bad guy went this far to grab at some weird concept of revenge."

Their conversation was interrupted by the intercom in her desk suddenly buzzing to life. Rumiko's voice squawked over the small speaker, a slight electronic tingle added to her words. "Pepper!" the intercom spat out. "Stop whatever you're doing and flip on Channel Four. I can't get a hold of Rhodes…he said something about locating some footage."

"What's going on?" Pepper asked the intercom.

"Our mystery Iron Man is giving a press conference!"

* * *

Flashbulbs flickered constantly, immortalizing the red and gold armored figure floating above Times Square. Several of the biggest media corporations in the city had received an anonymous call telling them that Iron Man would shortly be appearing over the famous town center to give an address. They had all hung up on whoever it was assuming it was a prank call. Apparently, it hadn't been, which they all soon realized after getting reports of the armored avenger silently waiting. 

News choppers circled overhead but so far Iron Man hadn't done anything more than hover in one place. Reporters yelled up questions but he gave them no response. Slowly but surely the various news outlets in the city all gathered underneath, eagerly waiting for something to happen.

Finally, once Iron Man had accounted for every major news agency, he lowered himself to just a dozen feet over the street and switched on his voice amplifier. He wanted to make sure the entire world heard him.

"Good afternoon," Iron Man said casually. "I'm sure you all have tons of questions that need answered and I promise I'll get to those eventually. I realize that the altercation with the governor yesterday frightened a lot of people and even raised suspicions in others. Please believe me when I tell you that you have nothing to fear."

The crowd remained silent, save for their quiet murmuring and camera clicking. They weren't so much stunned as they were captivated. Iron Man remained hovering, almost as if he was hesitating while he gathered his thoughts.

"This city lost many of its protectors when the horrific monster Onslaught struck," Iron Man continued. "But we moved on. Even though some of the world's greatest heroes were stolen from us the spark of hope was still there. We pulled together and did what we needed to do. Well, I'm here to do that, too. I'm a lot like you: scarred and worried about the state of the world. However, I'm not going to let that hold me down.

"I know that there are skeptics who think I'm a fake, a fraud, a charlatan. I don't blame them. You've all been deceived so many times by would-be conquerors and crackpot supervillains. Yesterday I saved lives by doing what a hero does: the right thing. Yesterday I wasn't prepared to unveil myself but I did so anyway because there were lives at stake. I apologize for not sticking around afterwards and answering your questions then but I wasn't ready to face you, the people. I'm sorry for any shock I may have caused but I am here now and I'm here to stay.

"Here, in this court of public opinion, I promise to stand where others have fallen. I promise to be a champion of the just and serve the public interest. I promise that you can depend on me. I promise that one of your Heroes has returned."

Iron Man empathized the last sentence by stretching his left arm out over the crowd. The reporters and various bystanders that had run over to see the mystery hero slowly began to cheer. At first it was just a few stray clapping noises spread throughout the audience but soon it grew to an uproar of cheering applause. Inside the armor sweat had been building on his brow. He wasn't sure how they would react but he was relieved to see that they had accepted him so far. He was asking a lot out of them. Trust was something most people had to earn, but the image of him, the guise he was under and the memories it brought out seemed to make up for everything.

The people wanted their Hero back and he was more than willing to make that happen.

Maybe their hope had been floundering and they found themselves desperate for a savior, or maybe they just wanted something tangible to believe in again. Maybe they wanted to feel like they used to every time they saw a man draping himself in the nation's flag or another man raising a symbolic hammer. Maybe it was just a matter of timing.

Iron Man lowered his arm and began to rise back up into the air, slowly and deliberately. He didn't want to leave them but he felt it unwise to remain any longer than necessary. He needed to stick to the plan that had been so carefully devised, otherwise…well, he wasn't really sure what would happen. He just knew he had to follow his instructions.

The crowd collectively noticed that he was preparing to leave and they called out for him to stay. They had so many questions, so many inquiries. The news helicopters circling overhead came as close as they dared to get the best shot possible for their live feeds. The reporters and camera crews on the street swarmed under him.

Suddenly, one of the helicopters burst into flames, it's back rotor separating completely in an explosion. Iron Man flinched in midair and shifted a few feet to one side, angling his head to get a better look.

"Mainframe?" Iron Man quietly asked aloud. "How…what's going on?" The confidence he had moments before during his speech had all but disappeared.

Sensors flared to life on the inside of his helmet, information scrolling across his heads-up display almost faster than he could analyze it. In his right ear an electronic voice chirped to life to answer his question.

**"The combustion of that aircraft was caused by an external source,"** the voice, Mainframe, replied. **"Sensors are tracking the trajectory of the attack based on—"**

"Damn it," Iron Man cut in, "I don't care what it's based on, just find it!"

Equations and graphs suddenly sprung to life on Iron Man's display, directing his attention to a certain part of the open sky. While the onboard computer superimposed an outline of the apparent path the attack had come from, Iron Man ignited his boot jets and launched himself toward the falling helicopter.

Small chunks of flaming debris fell to the ground while Iron Man hit the chopper head on, grasping the bottom of the hull with his gauntlets. The armor provided him with the strength necessary to hold the enormous craft as he did he best to lower it down gently. The crowd underneath him cleared out as soon as they realized what was happening, giving him the space to set the craft down with a resounding, metallic thud.

"Now," Iron Man whispered, "tell me where to find who the hell did that?"

**"Target acquired."**

Iron Man tilted his head to bring his vision into place with where the display indicators told him to look for the source of trouble. Standing on top of the massive electronic billboard in the center of Times Square with his arms crossed over his chest was a robed man with a long, thin face and facial hair to match. His skin looked old but his features were young and his posture deemed him a man of fortitude. Even from the where Iron Man now stood on the ground he could make out the shimmering rings adorning his ten fingers.

"Shit."

**"It would seem the Mandarin would like a word with you."**

Iron Man charged his repulsors, spilling energy out from between his clenched fingers. "Did you do this? Did you set this up?"

**"No, I am afraid not,"** Mainframe replied, somehow conveying irritation even though it was just a computer program. **"Be on your guard. The Mandarin is one of the—"**

"I got it," Iron Man blurted out. "Damn it. We wouldn't have had to pull off yesterday if we knew this jerk was going to be in town."

**"It was probably yesterday's events that brought him out."**

Iron Man ignored the program and activated his anti-gravity engine and boot jets, sending him rocketing into the air toward the Mandarin. The Chinese mongrel levitated in response, his face contorting with bottled rage. Iron Man raised his opened fists and fired off a volley of repulsor rays, blanketing the entire top of the billboard in concussive force. The Mandarin raised a hand and simply brushed the attack aside with the power of one of his rings.

"I thought I had lost my chance destroy you," the Mandarin screamed. "Whoever you are, know this: I care not for your reasons or your identity. The one who wore that suit before you was destined to die by my hands and that right was taken from me by an obscenity of nature! _You_ shall fulfill that requirement!"

Another ring began to glow with sudden life as the Mandarin pointed it at Iron Man. Alarms blared on his display as a powerful energy signature was registered emitting from the ring although he didn't need a computer to tell him what was coming. The Mandarin's powers were widely known, his ten rings of power well documented from his many public battles. The ring was situated on his right index finger – the disintegration beam.

"Can't we talk about this?" Iron Man meekly asked as he spun to the left and somersaulted forward in the air. "Man to psycho?"

The Mandarin replied by unleashing the ring's specific power, barely missing the armored avenger thanks to his evasive maneuvering. The beam struck a street lamp, instantly turning it from a solid steel post into a pile of dust. Iron Man cocked his right fist back and prepared to throw a haymaker at the Chinese villain, thankful that the most powerful of the Mandarin's rings had to wait twenty minutes before firing again. The other nine rings, however, were more than ready to erupt with power.

As the armored avenger let his gloved fist fly the Mandarin angled his left pinkie finger, using the ring held there to create a wall of solid ice. The crunching impact was enough to rattle both of them as shards of ice began raining down on the street. While the ice shield had served to protect the Mandarin it also kept Iron Man from seeing what was coming next, namely an electrical blast from the warlord's left middle finger. Arcing currents of blue, tingling electricity flowed through Iron Man's armor, sending him into a quick spasm. Iron Man held back his scream, determined not to let the Mandarin have any taste of satisfaction.

"I had intended to draw you out myself," the Mandarin explained as he continued to pump thousands of volts of electricity into his foe, "but how could I resist a prime opportunity like the one you gave me today? You're a fool, whoever you are. Your arrogance is almost as aggravating as the man before you whose life was owed to me!"

"And your assumption that this armor isn't insulated is _shocking!_" Iron Man yelled over the crackling electricity. The Mandarin gasped as Iron Man reached out and grabbed him by the throat, squeezing just enough to cut off his air supply.

A blast of gravitational force from the Mandarin's right index finger separated the two, sending Iron Man head over heels. "You faked weakness in order to drift closer to me, bringing you within range to lash out," the Mandarin said between choking breathes. "Very clever. I see I shall have to take you more seriously."

"No points for the pun? I'm hurt."

"Yes, you will hurt, you putrid waste!"

Air whooshed around them, kicking the Mandarin's already wild hair up into his face. While at their height a normal updraft was common, this one was undoubtedly more powerful than anything mother nature could innately create.

**"Sensors indicate incoming aircraft!"** Mainframe yelled into Iron Man's ears. **"I would advise scrambling."**

Iron Man shifted his weight and ignited his boot jets, throwing himself to one side. The Mandarin, hesitating to follow suit, turned his attention to the oncoming threat. Recognizing the crafts heading directly for them, the villain swore loudly and used his ring's mastery over levitation to rise high above the city.

"Who is it?" Iron Man asked anxiously, referring to the half dozen aircraft rocketing toward them. For someone like the Mandarin to leave the fight it had to be someone who was hardly a pushover. "I've seen those fighters before…"

**"Markings imply that those aircraft belong to SHIELD,"** Mainframe answered as information began scrolling across the display.** "They will surely attempt to arrest you. I would advise—"**

"Can the advice!" Iron Man scolded. "SHIELD didn't come to help us. Chances are they're after me just as much as they are the Mandarin, but he'll tear them apart like tinfoil."

**"I take that to mean you will not be fleeing?"**

"No can do, pal." Iron Man reset his gyroscopes and angled his metallic body at the hovering tyrant who was preparing to unleash Hell on the SHIELD strike team. "If I leave, people die. Simple as that."

**"You are beginning to sound like your predecessor."**

Ignoring the computer program, Iron Man charged his repulsors and joined the battle that was about to light up the New York City skyline. He felt like it was against his better judgment but he had been making a lot of decisions like that recently. He had donned the armor and chosen to be a Hero.

This is what Heroes did.

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** The man behind the iron mask is revealed as the Mandarin and SHIELD do their best to take him down. It's a three-way brawl to end all brawls! When the dust clears will a new champion be seen as a coming savior or a reckless fugitive? 


	3. The Iron Mask: Part Three

Rumiko Fujikawa was upset. The company, her company, was under attack on all sides from reporters and various other media outlets (not to mention Nick Fury) demanding information on this new Iron Man impostor. She had been taken completely by surprise from the initial debut of the reputed "Iron Savior," and even before they could issue an official press release there had been another sighting.

To make matters worse, the impostor was currently skating the New York skyline as part of a heated battle with the Mandarin.

"I want answers," Rumiko ordered Pepper Potts, the company's Public Relations specialist. "And I want them yesterday. I caught the news footage and those were SHIELD helicopters that showed up. What do we know?"

Pepper cleared her throat before answering. "The new Iron Man addressed the public and assured them of his good intentions, and was immediately interrupted by the Mandarin. A Channel Four news-copter was significantly damaged but so far no one has been injured. Our contact at SHIELD has verified that Colonel Fury has indeed unleashed a strike force to capture both individuals."

Rumiko pinched the bridge of her nose, attempting to alleviate the building pressure she felt in her head. She hated to be in the dark about matters that directly affected her, and there was no doubt in her mind that the appearance of this new Iron Man would affect her. She had faith in Pepper's information even if she generally disliked Pepper herself. There was just one question she had left:

"Where the hell is Rhodes?"

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #3 written by D. Golightly

"The Iron Mask – Part Three of Three"

* * *

Shattered bits of brick and mortar bounced harmlessly off of Iron Man's armored back as another volley of energy shot forth from the Mandarin's rings. The armored avenger flipped his boot jets up to full power and tried to put some distance between himself and the deadly villain that had decided to crash his press conference.

"Anytime you're ready to give me some decent advice, Mainframe," Iron Man said aloud into the tiny microphone situated inside his helmet, "I'm all ears."

**"I am processing several scenarios based upon my records of encounters with the Mandarin,"** the simulated voice replied through his earpiece. **"I need a few more moments to devise a course of action."**

Iron Man formed the words in his mouth to explain that he didn't have a few more moments, but before he could utter a single syllable a heavily armored helicopter sprung out from behind another building. A symbol was emblazoned across the side of the aircraft, marking it as property of SHIELD. Iron Man swore silently as he cut his boot jets' output in half and adjusted his anti-grav engine so that he wouldn't slam into the chopper.

His internal gyroscopes were seriously overclocked and alarms were annoyingly warning him of the present danger. The heads-up display flashed a plethora of messages across his vision, momentarily jarring his concentration. The Mandarin, taking full advantage of the distraction, closed the gap between them and aimed the ring adorning the smallest of the fingers on his right hand.

"Whoever you are," the Mandarin hollered over the roar of the chopper blades, "know that your death will prove the omnipotent potential of my power!"

A black shadow erupted from the ring and engulfed both Iron Man and the SHIELD helicopter. The dark energy swirled around them, completely isolating all sound and light and then expelling it with vicious force. The bubble of blackness that had formed around Iron Man closed in, concentrating its power at the Mandarin's command. He felt woozy and disoriented, unsure of where to go in the void.

"It's simplicity at how easily you are beaten," the Mandarin said, his voice the only thing able to cut through the blackness. "Your predecessor would have already freed himself by now."

Iron Man began to panic. His sensors were all registering various energy signatures but there was no way for him to know what to do or where to go. Inside the black void he was completely cut off from his standard uplinks, the most valuable of which was communication with Mainframe. He was alone, surrounded by a sea of infinity.

He took a chance and fired off a stray repulsor blast into the darkness, hoping to strike something to give him a sense of direction. Even the sound of the energy escaping his gauntlet was totally muffled by the void and the only idea to free himself dissipated with the blast.

The Mandarin laughed slightly before continuing. "When I first heard news of your presence I thought I might partake in a worthy challenge…but you have left me wanting. I had felt robbed when my foe died at the hands of another, and your death will apparently do little to fulfill that need. A shame that—AH!"

**"—er, are you there?"** Mainframe's electronic voice blared.

The blackness suddenly evaporated into translucent waves of light before leaving altogether. "Yeah, I'm here," he exclaimed with a sigh of relief.

He swung around in the air and saw the reason why the Mandarin had broken his concentration over the black bubble of darkness. The remaining two SHIELD helicopters were taking turns strafing their weapons at the Asian villain, pummeling against his barrier of concussive force that was erected around him.

Iron Man prepared to launch himself into the lower back of the Mandarin. "Sucker-punching son of a—"

**"Behind you!"**

A web of tangled energy encased itself around Iron Man, holding him in midair. He looked over his shoulder to see the third SHIELD chopper still behind him, forgotten in the quick scuffle with the void. The energy net was tethered to the lower turret under the helicopter's hull, and it was slowly drawing him in. Had it not been for Mainframe's warning Iron Man would have been taken completely by surprise.

He could see the face of the chopper pilot, smug and full of pride from his apparent capture of Iron Man. The energy coursing through the net was probably designed with someone like him in mind…but he was about to show them that they had never seen anyone like him before.

Through the psionic link he had with his armor, Iron Man activated the repulsors in his gauntlets once more. Only instead of expelling energy they were now inversed, drawing the power inward. Sparks traced the webbing of the net, sliding down the strands and leaping into the irises at the center of Iron Man's palms. He smiled beneath his helmet, enjoying the brief moment of technological superiority.

He ripped the net into several pieces with a wave of his arms, its power all but diffused. He arced up into the air over the SHIELD chopper behind him, blasting its tail with twin repulsor blasts. He made sure not to damage the craft enough to make it crash, but it was now forced to leave the fight and return to base.

The pilot's smug expression was replaced by anger. Iron Man couldn't hear what the pilot was screaming as the chopper lazily turned about and left back the way it had come, but he was sure it incorporated a number of four letter words.

"Total and utter wastes of human flesh," the Mandarin spoke.

Metal crunched and folded in on itself, noisily crushing those within the two remaining SHIELD helicopters. The Mandarin had given up trying to chase them away, instead opting for the simpler solution. The ring of power upon his right thumb, the matter rearranger, glowed with eerie presence as the Mandarin commanded it to shift the molecules that comprised the helicopters. Within a matter of seconds the twin choppers were converted into perfect metal spheres that no longer defied gravity. The giant balls of twisted metal fell to the ground, the bones of the crews mixed somewhere in the center.

"You slimy bastard!" Iron Man roared through his helmet speaker as he crashed into the back of the Mandarin.

The two tumbled forward through the air before Iron Man finally righted himself with the aid of his gyroscopes. Metallic armor clashed against green flesh and silk robes, juxtaposing one another like night and day. He landed a right cross against the Mandarin's chin, but before he could follow it up with another solid blow, gravitational forces at the Mandarin's command knocked him away. He thought he had a firm grasp on his foe but the Mandarin's mastery over the martial arts had enabled him to break the hold easily, despite Iron Man's enhanced strength.

"Pathetic," the villain spat out, as if the words were laced with venom. "You aren't half the self-proclaimed hero as your predecessor. It almost makes this undertaking not worth the effort."

"Fine by me. Let's just call it quits for the day and finish this up some other time."

"Disgustingly pathetic," the Mandarin repeated. He rushed forward, brandishing enough power between his fingers to level mountains. "There was a time when I thought that the Old Ways were the best ones. Survival of the fittest. Only the strong should lead."

His fist smashed against Iron Man's helmet, striking the cold exterior of the armor and rattling Iron Man's head. "The primal strength that guided feudal Japan somehow seemed clearer to me then what you call the modern way of life."

Again his fist crashed against the helmet, threatening to actually crack the reinforced metal. "But then I realized that the Old Ways had been replaced by capitalism and politicians. Subtle maneuvers through cloaked communications were the chosen swords and spears of the present day."

The Mandarin brought his knee up into Iron Man's abdomen, causing him to buckle forward and expel all the air housed within his lungs. "I had a premonition. I should cast off my old persona and create a powerful visage to blanket myself in, leading the corporate world by storm like none other. I would master this newer form of warfare just as I had so many others."

Spinning in midair, the villain slammed the back of his fist against Iron Man's throat, sending him faltering head over heels from the momentum. "And do you know what happened then? The reason I did not accomplish this goal?"

Iron Man righted himself just as the Mandarin encased him in a thick coating of ice. When the hero was about to plummet to the awaiting ground below, the Mandarin swooped forward and held Iron Man up to eye level with another of his rings' powers. He drew his enemy close, their faces mere inches apart, saying:

"I was given word of your return. A link to my past that I wanted to shed. For that inconvenience, coupled with my burning desire to wash the blood of my most hated foe from my hands, your life was forfeit."

"Anyone ever tell you that you talk too much?"

Iron Man's chestplate began to resonate and glow with building power. The Mandarin blinked, realizing what was about to happen, yet powerless to stop it. The signature pentagon shape of his uni-beam suddenly erupted in waves of relentless energy, slicing through the suffocating ice and cutting into the Mandarin's shoulder. Iron Man flexed his arms and shattered the remains of his chilling restraints, rushing forward and gripping the Mandarin by the throat.

"You have some serious issues, pal," Iron Man said. "I ought to squeeze your neck 'till your eyes pop out."

"But…" the Mandarin muttered with a sinister sneer, "You won't. You…you do not possess the ability to do what I would do. That is why you wear…you wear those damned colors and I mine. We are different." He was slurring his words, gasping for breath between Iron Man's fingers.

Iron Man tightened his grip, leaning closer to his rival's face. "Two sides of the same coin, bucko."

**"Let him go, before you do something you regret,"** Mainframe spoke into his earpiece.

Iron Man studied the Mandarin's face carefully, as if seeking some semblance of himself within his features. A long, silent moment passed between them. The raging noises of the city under them faded away like the volume had slowly been turned down. Iron Man's human eyes, behind the protected helm of his visor, looked into the Mandarin's pupils like they were mirrors, searching for something he wasn't sure he wanted to find.

"Not worth it," Iron Man finally said.

He abruptly let go of the Mandarin's neck, to which the villain quickly sucked in a deep breath. Menace and dark intent swept over his face as he angled his unhurt arm up to blast at Iron Man, but the red and gold armored hero raised his own hand first, unleashing a repulsor blast into the Mandarin's chest.

The force of the impacting energy clobbered the villain into the side of an office building. The Mandarin sailed through the outer wall and kept going, through several interior walls and into a large conference room. Smoke and rubble momentarily filled the gap between them, blocking Iron Man's view entirely.

Iron Man clenched his fists and floated through the hole, searching for the Mandarin and preparing himself for a surprise attack. He softly flew through several rooms before finding the spot where the Mandarin had landed. Other than wrecked furniture and horrified office workers, there was nothing.

**"I'm not registering the unique signatures of the Mandarin's power rings anywhere in the vicinity,"** Mainframe said. **"It appears he has left the building."**

"He's gone," Iron Man added, relaxing his closed fists. "The coward took off, just like they always seem to do."

**"I would suggest we do the same before SHIELD sends reinforcements."**

"Yeah," Iron Man replied woefully. "I guess you're right. So much for the debut of the all new, so-called invincible Iron Man…"

* * *

Flying high above the clouds, Iron Man finally cut his boot jets once he reasoned he was far enough away from anyone that might be trying to follow him. He followed the superimposed map on his HUD, dropping at just the right time through the clouds so that he would be headed directly for his destination.

The warehouse were he stored his secret armory was located on the southwest side of the city, right on the docks. The water provided easy access in and out of the complex but it was a remote enough location that he didn't have to worry about prying eyes. The entire area was abandoned, except for the occasional squatter or shipjumper. It wasn't cozy and warm, but for the better part of a year it had been his home.

Iron Man descended, readying himself to access the roof entrance and get out of the confining armor. There was a hot cup of coffee with his name on it.

**"Wait,"** Mainframe said, breaking his concentration. **"I'm showing someone inside the perimeter…oh, no."**

"What's going on? Is it—"

Before he could finish the complete thought he was in range to see for himself who was standing out in the parking lot of the warehouse, leaning casually against an expensive, black sedan. If the helmet hadn't stopped him he would have rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

Waiting like a father for his son was Jim Rhodes.

"Shit."

He knew something like this would have happened eventually. He had just hoped it would have gone a little longer than just two days. Deciding the best thing to do would be to graciously meet the man face to face, Iron Man descended right in front of Rhodes with a soft hiss as his boot jets allowed him a gentle landing.

Rhodes was the first to speak. "You got some nerve."

"Excuse me?"

"You've got balls the size of boulders to be walking around in a suit like that. You need to make this easy on yourself, whoever you are. One phone call from me and not only will SHIELD be crawling all over this place, but so will Stark/Fujikawa security, and trust me when I say you don't want to mess with the Fujikawas."

Iron Man pointed an accusing finger at the intimidating black man. "You're the one who's got the nerve to come over here and—"

"Look," Rhodes said, cutting him off. "I'm not talking to the mask. I give you my word that I'm not here to bring you in. That suit you're wearing comes with my trust…for now. I know how you helped those people today, so that buys you the benefit of the doubt. But first thing's first, if you want my help, I need to know who you are. I'm not doing this while you have the helmet on."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because I'm not surrounded by SHIELD agents with guns pointed at your head."

Iron Man lowered his arm, thinking his options over. He could just ignite his boot jets and fly away, maybe start over again and learn from today's mistakes. But he knew that wasn't what a real hero would have done.

Slowly raising his arms to the edges of his helmet, he unclasped the sides and lifted the bulky piece of armor off of his face, revealing his face to the man who had tracked him down.

"My name is Abner Jenkins," he said. "I used to be the Beetle. Now I'm Iron Man."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah…mind if we do this inside?"

* * *

"Spill it," Jim ordered.

Abner, or Abe as he preferred to be called, took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled it. They were now inside the large warehouse, safe from whoever might want to spy on them. The majority of the Iron Man armor was still encapsulating him but his facemask and helmet had been removed so he could look Jim Rhodes in the eye.

Behind him was a row of sophisticated computers, several of them displaying a digital facsimile of the helmet Abe had shed. The computer-generated image shifted back and forth as if uncomfortable.

**"If I may—"** the image said.

"I don't even know what the hell you are," Jim said, cutting the computer program off. "So, no. You may not. Keep quiet while I figure this out. I'll get to you when I'm done with him." He punctuated the last word with a finger jabbed toward Abe, who instinctively flinched back a half step.

"What do you want to know?" Abe asked.

"Are you kidding me? How about _everything_?"

Abe pulled in another deep breath and collected his thoughts together into some type of coherent explanation. It had all seemed so simple when things had first begun, but in the last few days it had spiraled out of control. He decided that starting at the beginning would be the best thing to do. He knew he wasn't sweating because of the armor's cooling intakes, but he still felt like it anyway.

"Okay…obviously, I'm not really Iron Man. I mean, I'm not Tony Stark."

"No shit."

"Right, uh, well…Look, I'm not taking his place, man. I don't want that. I'm just trying to, like…atone for my past, ya know? Last year Mainframe bumped into me and sort of convinced me to—"

"Who?" Jim asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. One of his eyebrows was raised higher than the other, the rest of his face equally questioning the man before him.

"Mainframe," Abe answered with a wave over his shoulder toward the computer station. "He's an artificial intelligence matrix that Stark created in case he ever went missing for a prolonged period of time. See, about a year ago I met up with Baron Zemo and—"

"Zemo's involved in this?" Rhodes barked out. He looked around the warehouse, making sure they were alone and he hadn't walked into a trap. "What the—"

"Will you quit interrupting me already? If you want an explanation then shut your trap and let me talk!"

**"As I was about to say—"**

"You shut up, too," Abe said over his shoulder. He raised his hand to rub his eyes from the aggravation but stopped once he realized that the bulky gauntlets were still covering his fingers. He shot a look at Rhodes to make sure he wouldn't be interrupted again, hoping against all else that he could form his explanation into something he wouldn't go to jail for. He wasn't sure, but he doubted that impersonating a sanctioned superhero was legal.

"As _I_ was about to say," Abe finally continued, "the Mainframe Initiative was put into effect once the media outlets started reporting that Stark was pushing up daisies. Mainframe is a complex artificial intelligence that was developed using an imprint of Tony Stark's own brain waves. You might say that Mainframe is the result of Tony uploading himself into cyberspace."

**"A crude explanation, but more or less correct."**

Abe cleared his throat to regain Rhodes' total attention. "You may have noticed that he's a little more arrogant than Stark ever was. I'm tempted to learn how to mess with his algorithms.

"Anyway, like I said, Mainframe bumped into me during a meeting with Zemo. See, Zemo had this crazy idea to reform the Masters of Evil again and take the world by storm. Just after all that Onslaught crap, after all the Heroes were killed, the country was in bad need of some new capes to look up to. With Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and all the others gone Zemo figured that gaining the public trust would be real easy if we created new, heroic identities."

Jim snorted his disapproval. "Heroic, huh? So Zemo wanted you to impersonate Iron Man?"

"No, not at all," Abe replied. "He wanted us to become completely new Heroes. He had contacted several of the old Masters and gotten them to commit…he just had to convince me to turn in my Beetle armor for something he called the Mach One armor. I was supposed to be this entirely new guy, and part of a new super-team to boot. Moonstone, Fixer, Screaming Mimi, Goliath…he wanted us all to put on smiles and become the next generation of Avengers or something. 'Cept he called us the Thunderbolts."

"That never would have worked," Rhodes blurted out. The look on his face accompanied his disbelief for such a crazy, but well thought out, plan.

"Wouldn't it?" Abe countered. "Think about it. The most powerful and revered superheroes on the planet suddenly die. It's like a friggin' sign of the apocalypse! It's total chaos out there, man. People need something to look up to, even if it's handed to them in the biggest Trojan Horse ever dreamed up. I bet it would have worked out beautifully. The Thunderbolts would have blindsided the entire world."

"So why didn't they?" Jim asked cautiously. He still wasn't sure how much validity Abner's story held.

**"As been pointed out twice already,"** Mainframe responded coldly, **"because I intervened during Baron Zemo's session with Abner. When I was first activated my primary programming took effect, which was to replace Anthony Stark. I had shipments deviated from Stark/Fujikawa to this warehouse, where I quickly amassed a private armory compiled of prototype armor that I doubt even you were aware of, James. It was my intent to replace Stark myself. "**

Jim looked around the warehouse again, this time more carefully. Instead of peering into the shadows to see if one of the Masters of Evil was about to jump him, he took steady inventory of the crates, containers, and sealed chambers that lined the walls haphazardly. He had been so focused on Abe when they entered that he had completely missed the large amount of equipment stacked throughout the warehouse, including familiar chestplates, helmets, boots, and gauntlets. Pieces were strewn throughout the warehouse floor like toys, gleaming in the subtle ambient light.

**"I monitored certain channels of communication and determined that Baron Zemo had been recruiting the Masters together again. I chose to debut at the same time Abner met with Zemo, coincidentally. I remotely piloted the armor myself and crashed into the building I had tracked them to. It did not go well."**

"He means I kicked his ass," Abe whispered to Jim.

The simulated helmet on the computer screen flinched awkwardly, mimicking sarcastic disdain. **"Something along those lines."**

"Zemo took off during the fight like he always does. After I was done pummeling Mainframe, who I thought was the real deal, I moved in for the kill but hesitated."

"Why?" Jim pondered aloud.

"Honestly? I had pretty much reformed by that point, even before Zemo told me his ideas of pretending to go legit. I was tired of never coming out on top, never amounting to anything but a loser bad guy. I was ready to give the Beetle persona up entirely when I had gotten the call from Zemo. I was fifty-fifty about signing on with him again and tussling with Iron Man brought all those memories of jail back into focus."

**"I realized that I could not replace Anthony Stark myself,"** Mainframe continued. **"After Abner defeated me we conversed. My instruments told me his motivations for reforming were sincere, and he obviously had experience with Stark designed armor."**

"I spent the time between then and now learning how to become Iron Man," Abner finished saying for the computer simulation.

Rhodes shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "But that doesn't explain the fight between the Beetle and Iron Man the other day. Or the security codes used to access Stark/Fujikawa, Incorporated that only Tony and I had access to."

"Well," Abe replied while turning his head to one side, "I was piloting the Beetle armor while Mainframe ran the Iron Man rig. We staged the fight so that no one would suspect that I was taking over as Iron Man. I'll admit we got a little carried away, but it had to look real. Mandarin sticking his ugly head in wasn't part of the plan, but at least he's dealt with."

**"As for the security clearances,"** Mainframe added, **"Those were part of my memory when I as originally compiled. However, I do believe that Ms. Potts has discovered someone using the codes and could likely discover us."**

"That's how I found you," Rhodes said bluntly. "In fact, that was the only lead I had. If I can do it, Pepper can do it."

"So where does that leave us?" Abe asked.

"The way I see it, you have two choices. You can either turn yourself into the police and get this whole mess straightened out…or you can continue doing what you're doing."

A quizzical look splashed across Abe's face. He had never tangled with Jim Rhodes during his War Machine days, but he had heard through the grapevine how intolerant he was with supervillains. Even though he was reformed, he felt like Rhodes still looked upon him with harsh eyes. It was unnerving, to say the least, to see Rhodes act against his initial impression.

"You said it yourself," Rhodes continued, "people need something to look up to. Since the Heroes died the world has become a pretty crazy place. We need Iron Man flying again."

"Let me get this straight," Abe countered. "You're giving me your blessing?"

"Yes, with one condition: you run everything by me, no questions asked. You're on a tight leash, Jenkins, so don't step out of line."

"What about Pepper and the others that are sure to poke their noses around?"

"You just let me worry about that." Rhodes turned his back to Abe, taking in the gargantuan warehouse once more. He cracked his knuckles, enjoying the reverberating noise it caused to bounce off the starch walls. "Keep your head down, listen to what I tell you, and we won't have any problems getting Iron Man back where he needs to be."

Abe felt like a tremendous weight had been lifted off of his armored shoulders. He hadn't realized until then how much importance he had been putting into their conversation. He figured that if worse came to worst that he would just fly away and work out a solution later. As he began removing his gauntlets it donned on him that a true hero would never take that course of action. Heroes put the greater good before their own sense of pride.

He had big, metal boots to fill. A smile spread across his face as a strong sense of conviction overtook him. For the first time in his life Abner Jenkins, alias the Beetle, alias Iron Man, knew that he was doing the right thing.

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** The second arc in the brand new Iron Man ongoing series kicks off in "The House That Stark Built!" Now that Abe is unmasked, where do things go from here? Who can he trust, and what will he do when the Frightful Four come a'knocking? 


	4. The House That Stark Built: Part One

"For the last time," Jim Rhodes' electronically filtered voice scolded. "Do you not understand me when I tell you to stabilize the rear gyroscopes?"

Abe Jenkins shook his head in annoyance as he soared over the Atlantic Ocean. Several miles off the coast, where Rhodes had told him he wouldn't cause any damage, the latest person to don the Iron Man armor checked his HUD. After several long arguments and a handful of even longer training sessions, Rhodes had finally given his blessing for Abe to hit the skies with the armor again. Rhodes was back at the warehouse monitoring Abe's maneuvers as he affirmed himself with the mechanics of operating Stark technology.

"The scopes are fine," Abe finally answered through the microphone embedded in his helmet. "But there's this annoying little bug in my ear…"

"Funny," Rhodes shot back. "Just remember that even though you and that stunted computer simulation—"

"**I resent that**," Mainframe interjected into Abe's ear piece.

"—thought you could fill Tony's boots, you still haven't been given the green light by me. And guess what? My opinion is the only one that matters. So until you know these systems as well as me and Tony did, why don't you keep the quips to yourself?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Abe shook his head again, but couldn't help but feel that Rhodes was right. His latest upgraded Beetle armor was similar, but still several generations behind the Iron Man gear. He almost hated to admit it, but Stark really was a genius ahead of his time.

Abe smirked as he raised the throttle on his boot jets. Scanning through the options on his HUD, he made the necessary adjustments to the gyroscopes. He skimmed in low to the ocean's surface, leaving a tunneling wake behind him. Rhodes had been right again. The gyros had needed to be stabilized.

If he was going to make this hero thing work, he was going to do it right, even if it meant swallowing his pride.

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #4 written by D. Golightly

"The House That Stark Built – Part One of Three"

* * *

"Where the hell have you been?"

Rumiko Fujikawa had never been known for her subtlety. It was a trait, or lack thereof, that allowed her to viciously tear apart the business world alongside her father. Tact and grace were reserved for special occasions, usually deemed necessary by desperation. Otherwise Rumiko had no problem scolding an employee, spearheading a hostile takeover of a rival company, or laying to waste to a person's character.

They were on the roof of Stark Tower, the Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. headquarters in New York City. A gentle breeze washed over them, waving Rumiko's hair behind her shoulders. She was still a stunning beauty, especially in the afternoon sun, although those that new her best saw not a damsel but an Amazon. A look of irritation and expectation was plastered on her face.

"Nice to see you, too," Rhodes replied as he approached the president of their company.

"Answer the question," Rumiko reiterated.

Rhodes nearly hesitated in his reply, but he knew better than to enter into a conversation with Rumiko and not be prepared. He couldn't tell her that he had missed several important meetings in the last week largely because he was training Abe in the use of Stark tech. He still didn't trust the Fujikawas, not since they had swept in and taken majority control of Tony's company before his tombstone was even in place.

"Another problem in shipping," he said. "Our security breach is still in effect it would seem. Whoever hacked our systems and diverted those shipments over the last year is still out there. Daedalus, as he's known online, is still taking potshots at our network."

He made a mental note to double check the fictitious Daedalus identity that Mainframe had created to cover their tracks. Everything had to be in place to keep the story straight in order to make sure Rumiko wouldn't get suspicious of his connection to the new Iron Man.

"I'm beginning to wonder how dedicated you really are to this company," she responded. "Especially after I went to your defense personally when Fury was questioning your integrity. SHIELD still has us cornered, Rhodes. They want access to our R&D, and Fury isn't going to let up any time soon."

"Which is why it's important to keep on top of this security breach. For all we know Fury could be the one behind it. Ever since SHIELD was privatized there's no telling what lengths he's willing to go to."

They shared a stare, which Rumiko broke first, turning her attention back to the impressive view from the top of the building. "From now on you will run all operations by me. If this breach has the potential to become a leak, I will handle it personally."

Rhodes nodded in understanding. He was treading into dangerous territory by building a stack of lies against Rumiko and he knew that consequences would be dire if he was discovered. However, in weighing that danger against the possible success of Abe…he was willing to risk it. The world was desperate for good heroes, ones that were free of people like the Fujikawas.

"So why did I have to track you down up here?" Rhodes asked, glad to change the subject. "Pepper said you've been heading up to the roof lately whenever there's a lull in activity."

"The fresh air helps clear my head," she answered. If Rhodes didn't know better he would almost think he had seen her shoulders relax slightly. "I know that you and I never really hit it off when I was with Tony—"

"That's not important," he blurted out. Why did he say that? He was passing up an opportunity to gain leverage against her.

"It is." Rumiko watched a butterfly land easily on the edge of the rooftop, it's colorful wings a sharp contrast to the blank grey exterior of the building. "You fought against my father taking over the company and earned your spot as the Vice President. You have been an invaluable asset both politically and internally. Half our staff respects you more than they respect me. Pepper would have surely left by now if it wasn't for you, taking her PR talents with her to a rival."

"Pepper believes in what Tony tried to do with this company," Rhodes replied. He slid his hands awkwardly into his pockets, unsure of what to say next. Rumiko seemed unnerved, and instead of pressing her buttons he was actually hard-pressed not to console her. "We all know that…what the hell?"

Rumiko looked back at him quickly before following his gaze toward the sky. A pink orb was rapidly descending through the clouds, a loud rumbling noise accompanying it. It grew larger and larger and its trajectory was going to take it straight into the roof of the building. Rhodes hollered a warning at Rumiko, tackling her around the waste and rolling behind a stairwell entrance just before the pink ball impacted. Only, there was no detonating explosion or shockwave. Rhodes looked over his shoulder, wondering why the expected boom hadn't blown them all to pieces, when he saw the last thing he expected to see that day.

"Ah, a welcome party," the purple and black armored man called the Wizard said as he caught sight of them. The pink energy from his approach still surrounded him, but it was beginning to die down as he gently touched down on the roof. "Or perhaps I should say my first _hostages_."

* * *

"Here's what I don't understand," Abe said as he paced back and forth in front of a computer console. "It's like, Rhodey used to be War Machine, right? Only he didn't start out that way. Stark gave him a chance as Iron Man first, right? Then eventually Stark trusted him enough to make him his own tin suit, and just like that Rhodey was a hero. One that sort of beat the living crap out of bad guys, but whatever."

"**If you are insinuating that he should offer you the same chance**," the bobbing head on the screen, Mainframe, said, "**then I believe he has already done so.**"

"Oh, c'mon." Abe, no longer in the armor but instead garbed in a pair of boxers, a white t-shirt, and a bathrobe, grabbed another jelly doughnut out of the box on the console. "I'm just another scrub to him," he added between bites. "He's keeping me from running off with both you and the armor."

"**I am not sure I follow your reasoning.**"

"I'm not a rookie! I was a master mechanic for a top aeronautics designer, with a genius level intellect to boot, and I piloted my own armor perfectly fine for years." Abe sighed, swallowing another chunk of doughnut. "Look at it this way. He figures us out, tracks us down, practically threatens to have SHIELD arrest me, and then starts ordering me around."

"**Your point?**"

"My point is that the guy is a control freak and I don't trust him."

"**Says the supervillain.**"

"_Reformed_ supervillain, thank you."

Abe turned away from the screen that displayed the floating armored head that had come to represent Mainframe, munching his doughnut while trying not to drip too much of the filling onto his bathrobe. When they had first met, Mainframe had been an almost perfect imprint of Tony Stark's mind, although with every interaction the computer program had it gained a deeper sense of its own growing personality. Rhodes had vocalized his concern several times that Abe was a bad influence on the program, and given the sarcasm Mainframe had been subject to toss around lately, Abe was beginning to think the concern was a sound one.

He shook his head, preparing himself for the inevitable discussion about Abe's need to trust Rhodes. The fact was that Abe felt like he had been cornered when all he was trying to do was the right thing. He had reformed, why wasn't that good enough? Why did he have to undergo all of Rhodes' badgering instruction when he had already proven himself by holding off the Mandarin? One of Tony Stark's worst enemies, possibly _the_ worst, had threatened countless lives and Abe had successfully come out on top when all was said and done. For a first outing as an honest hero, he felt he had done pretty well.

"**Abner—**"

"I don't want to hear it, circuit breath…wait a sec." Mainframe only ever called him Abner when it was time to get serious. "What's going on?"

"**As you know**," the computer began to explain as it scrolled information across it's screen, "**I periodically access the Stark/Fujikawa computer cores, masking my presence as the Daedalus persona.**"

"Yeah, it let's you poke around and grab whatever info we need. So what?"

"**I have just been booted from their systems somehow. Just before I was discovered and removed, I captured this piece of footage from a security camera. You will want to see this for yourself.**"

Another screen next to Mainframe's flashed to life, showing a crystal clear, black and white scene of an empty hallway. The walls were bare except for a single horizontal stripe down the one side, a designer's attempt to flush some life into the otherwise dull corridor. Abe watched intently, waiting for something to happen. After a few heavy moments, a shadow finally graced the edges of the floor, growing larger and larger. The figure stepped into full view to reveal an older man, probably in his late thirties or early forties, dressed in a familiar costume that had bulky padding. His trademark goatee made him instantly recognizable.

"The Wizard," Abe muttered as he watched the scenario unfold.

The man on the screen caught sight of the security camera digitally recording him, and smiled. Raising a gloved hand, bright light enveloped the lens before static blanketed the screen.

"Where's Rhodes?" Abe asked eagerly.

"**After our morning session he went there to catch up on a meeting he missed. All communication with the building has been cut off, from phone lines to internet connections.**"

"Download, upload, or reload whatever it is you need to," Abe said as he shed his bathrobe and made his way to where the red and gold armor was stored. "I'm suiting up and we're going in."

* * *

"I don't need to tell you how vital this mission is, soldier. Screw this up and we'll be lookin' for new ways to throw in with the bureaucratic thugs up on the Hill."

Nick Fury had been called a lot of things in his career, but a jokester was not one of them. That's why the special agent standing at attention in front of him simply replied with an affirmative to his comment instead of laughing from how cliché it all seemed. SHIELD, an elite police organization the spanned the globe, was directed in all operations by Fury, who had been in the thick of the action since the second World War. Given his age, it wasn't too surprising that he would sound like he was still in the trenches at times.

"I understand, sir," the agent responded.

"The breach at Stark Tower is just the opportunity we need to get in and learn what they've been hiding from us," Fury continued as he cut off the tip of a fresh cigar. His office constantly smelled like cinders, a complaint from nearly all who entered, but no one would dare comment to him on the stench. "Reports are coming in from all over that the building is sealed off. Rumiko isn't stupid. She hasn't been playing ball with us for the better part of a year, and that makes me nervous. Stark/Fujikawa is still one of the world's top weapon designers, and I can't risk having their designs fall to the other side."

"Parameters, sir?"

Fury lit the cigar, sucking on the end a few times to make sure the tobacco ignited. "We picked up the Wizard on the spy satellite we had perched in the upper atmosphere, suicide bombing Stark Tower. Now it's like a dead zone. Nothing is going in or out of there, and the feed the satellite is sending us isn't making any sense. Infiltrate, recover whatever intell you can concerning their transactions over the last year, and get out. If you're discovered your story is you're part of a rescue op. Everyone but Rumiko will probably buy that."

The female agent nodded and turned to leave. As she pulled open the door to exit, she paused, looking back over her shoulder at her director. "What's my window, sir?"

"I'd say anytime between now and when the shit hits the fan," Fury answered. He puffed out a plume of smoke and steadied his cigar. He had tried to quit again a few weeks ago, just before the trouble with a certain armored 'hero' and the Mandarin. The whole fiasco had nearly been enough to give him an ulcer. This Iron Man had been off the radar for a week, but now…

"Agent 13," Fury said, "dig up whatever you can on the Iron Man defensive armor. I'm sure that imposter is going to poke his face into this situation. Make him your first priority. Get me everything from armor specs to the identity of who's piloting it now. I want it all…remember we still have a warrant for that shellhead, and if he shows up you do whatever you have to in order to bring him in."

* * *

The water had dried off the armor in less than a minute after Abe had breached the water's surface. The warehouse was planted right beside the Hudson, allowing him a private underwater exit to keep away from prying eyes. Once he was a few thousand feet in the air he burned his boot jets and made way for his destination. The warehouse wasn't fair from downtown New York, at least not the way he traveled. It wouldn't take long to get a bird's eye view of the situation.

He liked being in the armor. It didn't have quite the same level of steering that his old armor had, but it made up for it in other ways in spades. When he was the Beetle he had gotten used to shedding the secondary skin as soon as he could…but _this_. This armor felt like it was almost a part of him.

"What do we know so far?" he asked.

"**Practically nothing**," Mainframe answered into his ear piece. "**Other than the fact the Wizard seems to be involved, we are pretty much flying blind. Are you acquainted with the former 'Wingless' Wizard?**"

"We've met on occasion. He might owe me twenty bucks, now that I think about it. Never worked with him before in my past life, if that's what you're getting at."

"**There is still a blackout interfering with the building…and long range scanners have just presented an interesting answer to that specific problem.**"

Abe activated the visor of his helmet to adjust, allowing him to zoom farther ahead. He was coming up on Stark Tower quickly, and the visor gave him an eyeful of what lie in wait for him.

Stark Tower was gone, replaced by a large, pink prism of solid energy.

"Shit," he swore. "What the hell am I looking at?"

Mainframe paused before answering as the data processed. "**My first guess would be a force field of some sort surrounding the building, which would account for the blackout of information. It doesn't appear too powerful, apparently it's only purpose is to cut off communications.**"

"Guess we'll find out in a sec," Abe replied. "Hold onto your motherboard."

Pushing the throttle up to full blast, the new Iron Man cycled through the options on his heads-up-display as his velocity increased exponentially. A shimmering white projection quickly solidified in front of his outstretched arms, forming a force field of his own. The translucent shell was mere inches from his body as the rushing air whirled around him.

"**Abner—**"

"Not now!"

Iron Man smashed into the pink prism of energy, his momentum careening him into the construct with little care. The white force field surrounding him bent, but ultimately held as his body was pushed through the pink field. He suddenly popped out of the other side, crashing through the bare wall of Stark Tower. His force field deactivated as he hit the floor, smashing through an office chair and work desk. He rolled several times before coming to a stop against a potted plant.

"See?" he said. "Nothing to worry about. We're in."

"**That was unnecessarily reckless!**" Mainframe scolded. "**What if I had been wrong in my analysis of the force field? What if your own electromagnetic field hadn't been able to withstand the pressure, which was nearly seven hundred pounds per square inch, by the way. What if the polarity had been inversed and—**"

"Chill out. It worked out for the best, okay?"

Iron Man leaned on his knee to stand up and walked over to the hole he had created. The truth was he really had been reckless and he knew it. Mainframe was right…and maybe Rhodes had been, too. Looking out of the hole to see the punctured pink prism he realized that this new hero gig meant having to think before you acted, something that supervillains didn't typically do.

"The girlie field is starting to reform," Abe commented. "Must have a generator keeping it intact somewhere. Any clue where I should start looking, circuit breath?"

"**—_zz-_ apply the syst _-zz-_ to locate _-zz—_**"

"Mainframe?"

Iron Man tapped the side of his helmet, but the distortion continued. He glanced out the hole again and saw that the pink force field had now completely sealed itself, meaning that communication with the outside world would probably be impossible. He swore, wishing he had thought things through more.

Suddenly, his HUD switched on a radar image behind his visor. A proximity alarm chirped in his ear as he threw himself to one side blindly, hoping to evade whatever his systems were trying to alert him to.

_Splat!_

Iron Man charged his repulsors and targeted the spot where he had been standing. His outstretched gauntlets centered on a gooey substance on the floor that was slowly expanding. "What the hell…" he muttered.

"Perfect," someone said from the other side of the room. "I saw you on the news last week. Figures you would find a way to get by our containment shield."

Iron Man turned, keeping one gauntlet focused on the congealing blob. He saw a man standing in the doorway wearing a costume made of what looked like riot armor. On his back was some kind of bulky equipment that was attached to a gun in his hand by way of a wrapping hose. Abe recognized him immediately from his early days as the Beetle.

"Paste Pot Pete," Iron Man acknowledged. "Still shooting prematurely I see."

"It's Trapster now," the criminal replied, "and you have no idea what you're in for, hero."

Twin coils wrapped around Iron Man from behind, clasping his arms to his sides. He strained the servos in his armor to break free, but the coils just wrapped even more tightly around him. The bands holding him in place appeared to be made of some kind of dense metal, even denser than his chest plate. The coils scraped against his armor, tightening more and more.

"You said it, Trapster," a voice behind Iron Man, belonging to his captor, said malevolently. "Our first job and we get to take down someone who just came back from the dead."

The long coils picked Iron Man up into the air and twisted him enough so that he could see the one that had snared him. The black bodysuit had an orange pattern down the center, mimicking the snake that the villain had taken his name from.

"Constrictor," Iron Man said. "What are you doing hanging around with this bum? You used to have some class."

"Oh, me and Pete go way back," the Constrictor answered with a sinister smile. "We're practically family, you might say. But you've got bigger things to worry about, my friend. Like…_her_."

Constrictor, with his mastery over the coils that jetted out from the tops of his arms, forced Iron Man to spin back around and look dead on into a fist smashing into his helmet. The strike was powerful enough to make him loopy for a split second, even through the protection the helmet offered. He was sure the punch had dented the helmet slightly.

"At a girl!" Trapster cheered.

Iron Man, still a little groggy from the unexpected hit, looked up to see just who exactly had struck him. From the strength of the impact he had expected to see the Hulk standing in front of him, but instead he saw a goddess on Earth. She had to be at least seven feet tall, with an athletic build that most women would kill for. Her purple costume was barely covering her, and made her look more like a dominatrix than a supervillain.

"Titania, baby," Constrictor said, "you're the best thing to come into my life in a long time."

"Don't mention it," Titania replied as she cracked her knuckles. "Seriously. Don't mention it again or I'll rip those phallic symbols right out of you."

"Children, children!" yet another person said as he strode into the room. "My thanks for dutifully securing our intruder in a hasty fashion, but please…keep the squabbling to a minimum."

As soon as the last person entered the room he finally figured out. This wasn't some hodgepodge of bad guys that had decided to storm Stark Tower. No…these four characters all had one thing in common: they were all once a part of the Frightful Four. Abe felt like he was going to start sweating regardless of his armor's cooling systems. Things just went from bad to extraordinarily worse.

"Now, as first order of business," the Wizard said, "I move that we exterminate this so-called 'hero' and peel back the tin suit to see who's actually in there. Of course, we have a job to do…but there's always time for a bit of fun."

His head was reeling, he was immobilized, and he was cut off from the outside world. There was no cavalry coming. He was on his own with four villains that were known for being vicious enough to tear apart their opposition.

Abe Jenkins almost wanted to take his helmet off and tell them who he was…but with the look the Frightful Four had on their faces, he doubted it would make any difference. They were out for blood, and like a deer in headlights, he was in their sights.

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** Why have the Frightful Four taken over Stark Tower? And what happened to Rhodey and Rumiko? Plus, don't count out Agent 13! 


	5. The House That Stark Built: Part Two

"Where are we exactly?" Rumiko Fujikawa asked.

Jim Rhodes paused as he felt along a wall in the small room that served as their prison. The reflective stainless steel surface was smooth and void of contact points, but he was determined to continue searching every inch of the room for a way to get out. Reaching the corner, he turned to answer Rumiko before continuing onto the next wall.

"Testing area," Rhodes muttered, apparently not wanting to break his concentration. He loosened his neck tie and started feeling along another smooth wall. "We're in the subbasement, level three I think. This is basically just a multipurpose room that the lab techs use before moving to a more appropriate facility."

Rumiko rubbed the sides of her arms. She wasn't used to being taken hostage, especially not by a crazed lunatic called the Wizard. She and Rhodes had awoken in the sealed room shortly after the supervillain's arrival, unsure of what exactly what was going on. She remembered Rhodes briefly trying to take the Wizard down himself on the roof, and then the Wizard had thrown some kind of disc at them, knocking them out. All they knew was that they were in trouble. Big trouble.

"And I assume it's safe to say that we're stuck in here," Rumiko added.

"Looks that way. For now, anyway. Don't count us out of this thing just yet."

Accepting her position in the company after her father had taken it over seemed like an excellent way to gain favor in his eyes, but now Rumiko was beginning to wish things had unfolded differently. She remembered back to the first time she met Tony Stark, wondering how she had changed from that sporadic young girl into a staunch business woman.

She watched Rhodes desperately, but carefully, search every section of the chamber and for the first time realized why Stark had been so trusting of him.

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #5 written by D. Golightly

"The House That Stark Built – Part Two of Three"

* * *

The Constrictor's coils held tightly around Iron Man, keeping him from squirming free. Trapster giggled slightly at the sight of the captured hero, at least when his eyes weren't undressing the already scantily clad Titania. The one who led them, and nearly every incarnation of the Frightful Four, the Wizard, stood in the center of the room with his powered glove aimed at the newly dubbed Iron Man.

Abe Jenkins didn't panic…he reacted.

Throwing his weight back, Iron Man kicked out both of his feet and ignited his boot jets. The sudden burst of heat made the Wizard stumble back, while Iron Man was propelled backward, slamming into Constrictor. The villain's coils loosened on instinct as he fell to the ground, dazed. Iron Man shimmied free just in time to see Titania coming at him.

"Big mistake, pal," she said as she charged. "You would have been better off being fried. Now you're in for a whole world of hurt!"

"Yeah, right," Iron Man replied. "Fifty bucks says you can't touch me now that I'm not being held in place like a punching bag."

Scarlet rage flashed in front of Titania's eyes as she lashed out wildly with a series of punches that would have crushed an armored tank. Beneath his already dented helmet, Iron Man paid careful attention to his targeting computers. Titania's fists, while attached to a tall and luscious goddess of a woman, could still be treated as weapons from his system's perspective. Scrolling through his HUD, he flagged her arms with the targeting computer and dodged each strike according to the proximity alarms.

Right, left, right left… Iron Man backpedaled several steps before clutching her wrist at just the right moment, yanking back hard to tip her off balance. The strong woman fell right into the back of Iron Man's other fist, which caught her just under the jaw. She flipped over in the air, landing square on her back.

"You…you hit me!" Titania exclaimed.

"Never claimed to be a gentleman," Iron Man replied. He opened both of his fists and unleashed a torrent of repulsor rays at the villainess that shoved her skidding across the floor until her head slammed into the wall.

"Quit playing around!" Trapster yelled at his two fallen comrades. "This joker isn't even the _real_ Iron Man, for crying out loud!"

The contraption strapped to Trapster's back pumped a glob of his special concoction through the hose and out the nozzle of his gun. The thick plasmatic substance caught Iron Man's leg, adhering him to the floor of the office. The servos in the armored hero's knee joints whined, but were unable to break him away from the glue.

"If only he were," the Wizard said as he palmed something from beneath his padded body armor. "What a joy it would be to kill an original. Instead we are left with whatever fate has deemed this cretin to be."

Iron Man struggled to pull his leg free. He thought that the glue was beginning to crack under the pressure he was exerting, but he needed to buy more time. "You're one to talk about fate, Wiz. What's the matter? Couldn't get any decent recruits so you hired these monkeys?"

"On the contrary," the Wizard answered. "These fine specimens of debauchery are allies through thick and thin. Their allegiance is greater than anything a simpleton like you would understand."

Iron Man continued to struggle with the hardened glue holding him down. "I'd put emphasis on the _thin_ part of that."

"Let us see if that same arrogance is present when you're languishing in the upper atmosphere. Good bye, imposter."

The Wizard gently tossed the device he had grabbed from his armaments, a small disc, at the restrained Iron Man. The round, small object paused in midair for a split second before magnetically attaching itself to Iron Man's chest plate. He tried to wedge his fingers under it but found that it was strongly held in place. Abe blinked, wondering what exactly was supposed to happen.

A green display lit up on the disc a moment before Iron Man was ripped free of the floor and catapulted through the ceiling. Facing down, he felt the following ceiling crumble above him as his back slammed into it. He struggled to breathe as he was pushed through another ceiling, and another, and another. It felt like an entire planet was being shoved against his chest, forcing him to fly straight up.

Abe's mind raced for a solution before the Wizard's famous anti-gravity disc broke him out of the top of Stark Tower and sent him spiraling out of control into space. Which floor had he come in on? How tall was Stark Tower? How much time did he have?

Iron Man fumbled with the disc, straining himself to pry it loose. It was securely clutching his chest plate, a few inches below the pentagon shape of his uni-beam. He decided to gamble, hoping that if something went wrong that he wouldn't be dooming himself to a burial in the outer atmosphere.

Channeling all main power to the energy emitter on his chest, Iron Man activated his uni-beam. A fiery yellow streak of hot energy fired out of the pentagon, singing the anti-gravity disc. He continued to punch through floor after floor, but he didn't need to aim the weapon as he was just hoping the output would be adequate. Realizing that it just wasn't enough power, he began to channel his reserves into the beam, praying it would be enough to dislodge the device and save him.

The edges of the disc went from silver to charred black as the powerful uni-beam continued to sear its casing. Finally, Abe saw a small crack develop on the side of the disc and continue to grow. He cut off power to the uni-beam and ripped the anti-gravity disc off of his chest, allowing him to smack into the next ceiling that he would have burst through. He bounced down to the floor, narrowly avoiding the hole he had just created.

He rolled onto his back, tired from the pounding he had taken. His reserve power was critically low and a preliminary damage report scrolling across his HUD told him that the armor had taken a beating, too. He could still fly, which right then was all he wanted to do. Fly home and let someone else take care of this mess. He could use a nice hot bath while someone else saved the world.

"Aren't these freaks the Fantastic Four's problem anyway?" he said aloud.

"We would be," he heard a familiar voice say, "except that they're all dead."

He looked over at the hole in the floor to see one of the Constrictor's coils reach up and plant itself in the carpeting. The other coil quickly followed suit and within a moment the costumed villain was pulling himself up through the floor by way of his extended appendages.

The Constrictor fixed him with a cold stare and a sinister smile as he whipped one of his coils back into the hole, pulling up Titania beside him. She had a similar look on her face as she eyed up the battered Iron Man and cracked her knuckles.

"Well that's just prime," Abe muttered under his breath.

He rolled onto his feet and managed to catch the first coil being whipped at his head. The second, however, easily slipped itself around his throat and lower face and started to contract. Beneath the armor he would normally be safe and content with the air supplied to him via internal oxygen tank, but his low power level had forced the armor to automatically switch to opening vents, which were mostly found around his mouth. The coil cut off the vents and his access to any precious fresh air.

"I'll tear that tin suit right off of you, little man!" Titania roared as she covered the distance between them. No sooner had she gotten within arms reach than she started to lay into Iron Man, landing brutal punch after punch into his abdomen.

When each fist landed a little more air was forced out of Abe's lungs. The edges of his vision were starting to go dark. He didn't have much longer to get away. The killer instinct he felt coming off of his opponents told him that his life depended on it.

His head was firmly held in place but the rest of his body was free to move. He swung his lower body to one side, causing Titania's fist to only graze him. Lifting up his legs, Iron Man locked his feet behind the strong woman's head and twisted his hips. Caught by surprise Titania fell over and rolled to one side. She would be back up in a matter of seconds which meant that he had to free himself quickly.

The Constrictor's other coil was still gripped tightly in his hand. He yanked back hard on it, hoping to at least pull the Constrictor off balance. He felt the coil around his face loosen and release when he saw the villain fall flat on his face and slide back through the hole he had pulled himself up through.

"Ah, shit!" the Constrictor yelled as he dangled, held aloft only by the coil that Iron Man held in his gauntlet.

"It's a long way down, snake-face," Iron Man mocked. "Send me a postcard from prison, k?"

The themed villain fell several stories once the armored hero let go of his coil. Constrictor's screams turned into expelled huffs as he twisted in midair and hit his back off of the edge of a hole. He finally angled his body enough to land with a crash ten floors down. His coils instinctively wound themselves back into his forearms as he groaned.

"Not bad," Iron Man stated. "I could get used to—"

"Get used to _this_!"

Titania sucker-punched him in the back of the head, tipping him head over heels through the hole himself. Abe scolded himself for so carelessly forgetting that the fight wasn't over as he tried to right himself using his gyroscopes. As soon as he tried to activate the balancing equipment housed within his armor his HUD flashed to life with system overload warnings.

Apparently he had taken more damage than he originally thought. The armor started to shut down, and there was no chance that he was going to be able to fly now.

He felt something strike his lower back and felt a tinge of pain through the armor. "Hope you got airbags in that thing," he heard Titania say from where she had jumped onto his back, feet first. "Because you're about to have one hell of a wreck."

Her added wait only increased his velocity and the oncoming floor twenty-three stories below them was only getting larger. He clenched his eyes shut, realizing that this was going to hurt.

A lot.

* * *

"And where is the charlatan now?" a darkened face in the hologram projection asked.

The Wizard regarded the bent light of the hologram communication device he had invented, noticing that even though his contact was shrouded he could still detect basic facial expressions. The basic facial features were rendered, but it was only a shell of what the man actually looked like. The small sphere was a work of his brilliance that he doubted anyone else could duplicate. It was the only device capable of penetrating the dampening force field he had erected around Stark Tower, giving him access to the outside world. Genius such as his would never be appreciated.

"My comrades in arms have succeeded in capturing him," the Wizard replied. "I've ordered him stashed away until our business is concluded."

With his feet propped up on Rumiko Fujikawa's exquisite imported desk, the Wizard suppressed an irritated sigh. He hated having to report his actions to a man he had never met. At least, as far as he knew he had never met his current benefactor.

"Very well," the shrouded figure said. "This new Iron Man's interference was anticipated. I see I chose wisely when I hired you. Have you searched their database yet?"

"I've gone through Fujikawa's files personally. Twice. There is no record of an existing prototype armor, based off of Stark tech or otherwise."

"Impossible!" the hologram scolded. "My money isn't paying for excuses. The armored buffoon you captured isn't wearing something he got off the back of a Cracker Jack box! He acquired that armor from someplace and since Anthony Stark is dead that means his company must be behind it."

The Wizard squinted his eyes, barely holding his rage back. "As I've already informed you," the villain said calmly, "the database is clean. However, there is one item that may be of interest to you."

He saw the brow on the shaded hologram's head rise in curiosity, prompting him to continue. "Ms. Fujikawa appears to have been at the center of several investigations conducted by SHIELD. While I failed to find anything proving an attempt to duplicate the late Tony Stark's work, I have found evidence of a project that she would like to keep hidden from our friendly international police force. There are several instances of deleted sectors of memory that I found and restored, all of which had a key word attached: rebel."

"Rebel?" the hologram repeated. "I'm unfamiliar with what it's referencing. Any indication of what it might have been?"

"Most of the data was unrecoverable, but there are segments that I've been able to reconstruct. Mostly the sectors contain memos from her to the Stark/Fujikawa R&D department, asking for updates on the project. The last record alludes to operations being shut down."

"That's all?" the hologram asked. "You found me a stack of old memos? For what I'm paying—"

"I said the _majority_ of the sectors consisted of correspondence," the Wizard interjected as his eyes rolled. "There's more. One record I recovered looked like a weapons schematic, some type of sonic device."

The hologram slowly formed a smile. "Excellent," he said. "Send me everything you have. Everything."

"And what of the hostages?" the Wizard asked. "I had Ms. Fujikawa and her associate separated from the other people in the building in case delicate persuasion was needed to discover what we needed."

"Extract whatever you can about this rebel project, but I suspect that they are no longer of any consequence. Do what you want."

"And the so-called Iron Man?"

"For that," the mysterious shrouded man answered, "you may use your imagination."

* * *

"Why were we separated from the others?"

Rhodes regarded Rumiko for a second before trying to reply. He hadn't thought of it himself, having been so concerned with trying to escape from their confinement. "Good question," he finally answered after a long pause. "Maybe they know something we don't."

Rumiko shifted her stance for the third time in as many minutes. It had been a few hours since they had both awoken and still no one had come to look in on them. The feeling of inadequacy was starting to creep in as she realized that there was absolutely nothing she could do to help them.

"There had to have been at least a hundred people left in the building when the attack happened," Rumiko said. She was only saying aloud what she had repeated in her mind a dozen times already, but she wanted to keep occupied. "It was just happenstance that we were both on the roof when the Wizard attacked. What makes us so special that we deserve our own hospitality room?"

"You so sure about it being happenstance?"

Rumiko rose as eyebrow at the comment. "Meaning?"

"Meaning in a world where a scantily clad god with a giant hammer that just has to be compensating for something is considered normal, there isn't much left that can be called happenstance."

The smooth walls had yet to yield any secrets to James Rhodes but he continued his search anyway. He refused to believe that they were just stuck there with no way of retaliation. His time spent as one of the world's heroes had taught him one thing: there's always a chance.

Unfortunately, he had also learned that luck always played a large part in providing that chance. As of late his luck was looking rather bleak. Doubts about Abe's abilities were beginning to form, and with those thoughts came a distinct feeling of regret.

A pair of knocks on the door, the only exit from the enclosed room, startled both of them. Rhodes shot Rumiko a look before standing up straight, forgetting his search of the walls.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything," a voice said as the deadbolts sealing the door shut were undone. The door slid back, revealing a man of average height that was dressed in a somewhat gaudy costume. He held a unique weapon in his hand, which he pointed at the pair of prisoners. The Trapster smiled, sending a shiver up Rumiko's spine. "I'd hate to be a third wheel."

"What do you want?" Rhodes demanded. He instinctively placed himself between the villain and Rumiko, making sure not to break eye contact.

"The same thing everyone wants," the Trapster answered. "All the money in the world and enough power to squash whoever I want. But if you mean what do I want right now…" He slid back a chamber on his weapon, which elicited a soft gurgling noise from inside the barrel. "Well, let's just say you're both about to become permanent fixtures here."

"Where's the Wizard?" Rhodes blurted out. "You one of his lapdogs or something?"

"Hardly. I was told to extract whatever I could about the rebel project from the both of you but I think maybe I'll just kill one and make the other watch. Nothing gets a person talking like the face of death. So…who's it gonna be, kids?"

"What's he talking about?" Rhodes whispered over his shoulder to Rumiko. "What rebel project?"

The usually forceful Asian woman placed a hand on James' back while she stared at the gun leveled at them. Her fingers quivered slightly at the sight. "I…I have no idea," she replied. "Jim. He's going to kill us if we don't do something."

"So nothing to say about the project, huh?" Trapster said, nearly yelling. "Fine by me. I've been looking for an excuse to test my new polymer anyway."

He raised his gun to eye level, his smile becoming that much more sinister. Rhodes quickly ran through a handful of scenarios in his head, but each one played out with either him or Rumiko dead by the time he crossed the room to where the Trapster was. He mashed his teeth together as he stared the villain down, clutching Rumiko's hand behind his back. He squeezed her fingers tightly in an effort to give her just a little bit of encouragement.

An arm suddenly reached around the doorway and wrapped itself around the Trapster's neck. He let out a muffled exclamation of surprise before being yanked back into the outer hallway. His gun went off, spraying the ceiling with a stream of his patented glue. The mystery arm pulled him entirely around the corner, and the moment he was completed out of sight both the prisoners heard a hollow thud followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor.

Rhodes looked curiously over his shoulder to see Rumiko equally puzzled by what had just happened. Cautiously, Rhodes stepped along the edges of the wall until he had angled himself to look out into the hallway. He saw the Trapster lying on the floor with his eyes rolled into the back of his head. His gun was lying beside him, expelled and useless.

"What the hell…" Rhodes muttered.

"Don't worry," a hard, feminine voice said, "he's alive. My orders don't include assassination. At least, not today they don't."

Rhodes regarded the strong woman standing before him, who was also their apparent savior. Standing nearly as tall as him, she had blonde hair pulled tightly back and was wearing a dark blue uniform that had a white shoulder holster, complete with handgun. He noticed her lean, athletic look and realized that she was a professional at what she did, which seemed to include tactical combat.

"Mr. Rhodes; Ms. Fujikawa," the woman continued as she nodded at each of them. She slipped the handgun out of her shoulder holster and cupped it in both her hands with a precise grip. "I wish we could have met under better circumstances, but the situation calls for a more immediate course of action. We need to get you both to safety."

"Who are you?" Rumiko asked as she stepped out from behind Rhodes. "And what are you doing here?"

"I'm Agent 13," she responded as she looked up and down the hall to make sure it was clear. "I'm with SHIELD. Iron Man has been captured and it looks like the Frightful Four are ready to pull out, seeing as how one of them just tried to kill you."

"Fury sent you?" Rumiko exclaimed. "The hell! That egotistical—"

"If you don't mind," Agent 13 said, cutting her off, "you can complain all you want after we get out of here. The first thing we need to do is secure this floor and then find a way out." The blonde woman turned away from them and started off down the hall, the tip of her drawn gun leading the way. She paused a few steps down and looked back at the pair, who were both still standing dumbstruck. "The Wizard is bound to coming looking for the Trapster soon. Are you coming or did I just waste my time?"

They exchanged a final glance before briskly moving down the hall to catch up, hopping over the knocked out Trapster. Rhodes knew that Rumiko wouldn't trust anything that Nick Fury did, but right now they were short on options. If the rest of the Frightful Four was in the building like Agent 13 had said then he just hoped they could survive long enough to find a way to escape.

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** Abe is down, but is he out for the count? Who's behind the Frightful Four, and what the heck is that darn rebel thing everyone is talking about? "The House That Stark Built" concludes next issue, but don't be surprised if a few more questions pop up along the way! 


	6. The House That Stark Built: Part Three

His head was pounding. He thought he might have a concussion, which was surprising, seeing as how he was encapsulated within a three million dollar suit of armor that could take a pounding from the Hulk.

He groaned, and as soon as he did, he wished he hadn't. The pounding in his head only worsened with the effort of trying to speak. The blood rushed to his head and when he opened his eyes to see where he was, there was only blackness. His heads-up-display was down, which either meant his armor had lost all power or someone had tampered with it. Without the systems running he was completely blind to the outside world, entrapped and encased inside the Iron Man defensive armor.

Abner Jenkins mentally swore. If he hadn't been so gung-ho about busting in to Stark Tower then he might not be in this situation. The Frightful Four were no one's fools, even given the general disrespect some of their members held within the supervillain community. Individually they were weak, but together they were fierce, even deadly.

"So," Abe heard the Wizard say. He couldn't pinpoint his exact location since he was locked inside his own armor, but he knew he was close. "I'm sure you noticed that I've switched off your armor's internal systems. I've been instructed to remove you from the mortal coil. It seems a bit archaic, but I thought I would try to remove you from that precious armor first. Archaic in the sense that it's been the motivation of so many others, but I consider myself one of the great innovators of our time."

Abe listened intently as he heard some type of device switch on with a thrumming power. He grew nervous as the Wizard stepped closer. Abe was trapped, completely helpless against the sick machinations of the Wizard, a villain that had killed more than once on occasion.

"My employer merely wishes your death for your interference earlier," the Wizard said. "But I want something he apparently no longer does: your secrets."

Abe felt something clutch both sides of his helmet. The shell of his armor began to vibrate with the hum of whatever was powering the device the Wizard was using on him. Slowly, the pounding headache grew into a stabbing pain all over his body, and he screamed. His cries were muffled by his own helmet, but the Wizard could surely still hear Abe's discontent.

"I'll turn your insides to mush and simply pour you out of the armor, keeping it all for myself."

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #6 written by D. Golightly

"The House That Stark Built – Part Three of Three"

* * *

"Where exactly do you think you're taking us?" Rumiko Fujikawa, the president of Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. demanded to know. "We know this building better than you. We should be finding an exit!"

Agent 13, a blonde bombshell with an athletic build hidden underneath a blue SHIELD uniform, paused as she led them down the dark and silent corridor. "I was provided with blue prints of this entire facility, which I memorized," she replied. "I know the air conditioning system better than you know the parking lot. Now keep quiet or I'll lock you back in a room until my mission is completed."

James Rhodes, who followed up their trio in the rear, smirked at the ballsy comment but made no verbal reply of his own. He reaffirmed his grip on the glue gun he had taken from the Trapster's unconscious form, testing its weight in his hand. It was a bulky apparatus with a hose connecting the arm cannon to a backpack, where Rhodes assumed the polymer concoction was stored. In his time spent as War Machine he had never crossed the Trapster, but the villain's reputation had preceded him. Even if Agent 13 hadn't kung fu chopped the back of his neck and taken him down, Rhodes doubted that the Trapster would have provided much of an obstacle.

The trio quietly stalked down the corridor: Agent 13 on point, Rhodes in the rear, and Rumiko kept protectively between them. After being freed from the secondary testing room that was usually used by the company's lab techs , the pair of executives were led by the SHIELD agent deeper into the sublevels of the building. Rhodes wasn't quite sure of what her agenda was, but the agent seemed to have their best interests at heart.

"What does Fury think he's doing by sending you in here?" Rumiko demanded, eliciting a soft sigh from Rhodes.

"When a known group of terrorist supervillains takes over one of the world's largest weapon designers' headquarters," Agent 13 replied, "it's just common sense for SHIELD to get involved. I would think that a little gratitude would be in order."

"I don't believe that rescue mission baloney," the dark-haired Asian woman shot back. She hugged the wall, mimicking the agent's movements, but still retained an aggressive manner. "A spy is a spy is a spy. I've got my eye on you."

"Ease up, Rumiko," Rhodes said. "Let's just concentrate on one thing at a time. Agent, what's our next move?"

"I accessed the building through the silicone recycling pump—"

"That explains the smell," Rumiko murmured to herself.

"—and hacked into the building's network mainframe. The Wizard, the Constrictor, and Titania are somewhere on the upper floors, doing God knows what to your inventory. Stark Industries, or Solutions, or Enterprises, or whatever it used to be called was the target of multiple parties looking for technology storehouses, as I'm sure you're both well aware."

"But all of our R&D progress has been made public since the merge," Rumiko said defensively. "We're openly traded on the stock market around the world. There's no need for our records or equipment to be seized."

"All of it?" Agent 13 said without taking her attention away from the corridor. "The Stark defensive armor has been sought after for years, and not just by these guys. You're telling me that this company no longer has secrets to protect?"

Before either of the executives could reply, three floating security androids rounded a corner and locked their attention on the trio. Agent 13 paused, holding a hand back so the others would stop. She raised her weapon in her other hand, aiming for the head of one of the golden androids. Twin coils lay on either side of the androids like lifeless arms, while their legless bodies gently bobbed up and down in the hallway. A red octagon, mirroring the design of Iron Man himself, silently glowed in the center of their torsos.

"Wait," Rumiko said as she placed a hand on the blonde woman's shoulder. "Those are property of Stark/Fujikawa, Incorporated."

"Are they going to shoot?" Agent 13 asked without breaking her aim.

"Not if you get out of the way."

"Rumiko—" Rhodes began to say, but the President of their company had already swung out into the center of the hallway.

"Voice recognition: Rumiko Fujikawa," she called out to the androids. "Stand down and await further instruction."

The red sigil on the androids' torsos grew from a soft glow to a burning fire. The coils, which had been resting lifelessly, sprung up like wild snakes with jaws snapping. Rumiko took a step back in surprise, and Rhodes grabbed her shoulders and quickly yanked her back against the wall behind Agent 13. A blast from the middle android, pulsating out of the red sigil in its chest, charred the floor where Rumiko had been standing a moment earlier.

"Looks like the Wizard got into your systems and reprogrammed these things," the SHIELD agent said over her shoulder. She opened fire on the first android, empting her entire clip into its golden casing.

"Oh my God…" Rumiko blurted out.

"Just stay behind us!" Rhodes screamed as he stepped in front of his boss. He pulled back the lever on the top of the glue gun, hoping that was all he needed to do to arm the device. He knelt down a few feet behind Agent 13 and angled his body to the side, making sure to not interrupt her line of fire as he created his own.

He pulled the trigger and a thick polymer oozed out of the nozzle, plopping uselessly on the floor. It sizzled as it dripped onto the flat surface, bringing a heavy, plastic smell with it.

"Dammit," Rhodes muttered. He quickly flipped a few more switches on the strange weapon, hoping he could figure it out in time to be of use. He chanced a glance at the androids as he worked furiously, and was horrified to see that not only was Agent 13's weapon just as ineffective as his own, but that the security robots were advancing.

"Of all the stupid-ass weapons, I have to end up with the Trapster's."

* * *

His throat was raw from screaming.

"What does it feel like to have your brain liquefied?" the Wizard asked.

Abe breathed heavily from exhaustion once the Wizard finally let up on the sound wave torture. His sensors were still knocked out, and if it wasn't for the padding in his helmet he would have been deaf long ago. As it was the Wizard found he was having a difficult time breaking the new Iron Man.

He had undergone four rounds of the sonic bombardment, barely surviving each one. Since he couldn't see he had no way of being sure, but judging from his own experience in creating sonic weapons he guessed that the Wizard was having a slight problem in keeping the vibration going lest he shock his own systems. The only proof Abe had of that theory was that he was still alive.

The deathly noise being pumped into his helmet stopped again, giving Abe a chance to relax and regain his bearings. The vibrations were upsetting his equilibrium, but if he could hold out for just one more assault, he had an idea that might be able to get him out of this mess.

"Wizard," he heard someone say as they entered the room. They treaded heavily on the floor, dragging their feet. "Are you done playing around with this tin man yet? Titania and I want a crack at him. I owe him."

"It was your own carelessness that caused your defeat, Constrictor," the Wizard replied. Abe smirked beneath his helmet, remembering the way he had dropped the snake-themed villain approximately twenty floors through the inside of the building . "Did you and Titania recover the databanks I told you to?"

"One of them was busted," Abe heard Constrictor reply. "Ends up the tin man here smashed through the computer server room when he was careening out of control. This place does a ton of business and all of their systems are periodically backed up on their databanks, but out of the three you wanted only two of them were salvageable."

"Damned cretin," the Wizard swore. "I promised Hammer all the information available on the 'rebel' project I uncovered. This is most displeasing."

Abe's ears perked inside his helmet. Hammer? Abner Jenkins knew that name all too well. Justin Hammer, assuming it was the same person that the Wizard was referring to, had to be one of the most diabolical men the world had ever known. He was the kind of guy that would sell his own mother if he knew it would benefit his business, which was largely defrauding companies and the general public alike.

Justin Hammer had been Tony Stark's biggest business rival and was often suspected of industrial sabotage. Their feud had been reflected in the stock market, with each company taking dives every time their rivalry topped the headlines. Rhodes had told Abe all about some of the worst cases in Iron Man's career and how they mostly could be linked to Hammer. Rhodes had also mentioned how Hammer had tried to take over Stark's company before the Fujikawa family had outbid him.

And now Hammer's name was being tossed around by some intruding supervillains. Coincidence? Abe seriously doubted it.

"Well," Constrictor continued, "Titania is trying to locate Trapster. The idiot wondered off while we were checking out the databanks. You ask me that guy has been smelling his own wares for too long. Once they get back we'll be ready to move."

"Excellent." Abe listened intently as the Wizard reset his powered gloves, preparing to bombard him with another unhealthy dose of ambient sound waves. "Once I recycle the wasted technology from our iron friend here we'll be off to the rendezvous point. Regardless of the state of the databanks we _will_ be paid."

The Wizard placed both his hands on opposing sides of Iron Man's helmet again, ready to unleash another volley of excruciating pain. Abe held his breath, hoping that the gamble he was about to make would pay off. If it did he still ran the risk of frying himself from the inside out, but if it didn't he was no worse off. At least, that was how he justified it enough to take the risk.

"Goodbye, imposter."

At the last second, Abe thumbed back a slot inside his left gauntlet and pressed the revealed button. Tony Stark, as arrogant as he usually seemed, was nothing short of a genius that anticipated nearly every situation. Having been locked inside the Iron Man armor many times himself, Stark had devised multiple ways to channel power back into the suit's batteries in case of emergencies. There were solar adapters, electro-chemical gel solutions, and even vibranium converters.

As soon as Abe pressed the switch, the Wizard activated his sonic attack, which at first caused Iron Man's helmet to violently shake within the villain's grasp like it had every other time. A painful moment later, Abe's HUD sprung back to life and he heard the soft whine of his gyroscopes coming back online.

The vibranium converter, built out of a rare metal only found in the nation of Wakanda, began changing the ambient vibrations into power for the suit, effectively rebooting Iron Man's systems. The metal's unique properties, coupled with Tony Stark's intellect, made for an effective, if not unusual, method of restoring power to the armor. It was barely functional, but it was still working. Abe let out of his held breath in relief as he kicked a foot out and knocked the Wizard back across the room.

"What the hell?" Constrictor exclaimed as Iron Man stood up.

With his minimal systems back online, Iron Man could finally see again through his visor. The Constrictor was standing on the far side of the room, which was a conference room of some sort, next to where the Wizard had crashed into the pasty white drywall. Coils began to unspool from inside Constrictor's forearms in a grotesque display of his trademark.

Iron Man took a step forward and nearly fell over. The armor was running on emergency back-up power, supplied by the Wizard's attack. It was barely enough to keep the suit operational, meaning the servos and strength enhancers were offline. Doing something as simple as lifting his arm took a lot out of him. The weight of the bulky armor, which had once seemed streamlined and easy to operate, was now working against him.

"Running for round two, eh?" Constrictor said as he swung one of his coils overhead. "Fine by me, tin man. I can slag you sitting down or standing up, whatever your poison."

Abe wanted to throw a witty comeback at the villain, but chose to concentrate on staying alive instead. The Constrictor whipped one of his elongated coils at Iron Man, slicing through the air with deadly and practiced precision. Iron Man managed to raise an arm in defense just in time, catching the coil around his forearm. The worming tendril wrapped around Iron Man's arm, tightening and pulling the hero off balance.

Constrictor unraveled his other coil, preparing to lash out once more. "Just lie down and die, will ya?"

Abe quickly weighed his options, which were much more limited than he would have preferred. The Wizard was up and moving beside the Constrictor, creating another immediate threat that he had to deal with. According to his HUD report, the anti-grav engine in his suit was operational. The window in the conference room would break easily enough if he dove through it, but he could also still see the pink force field that been erected around the perimeter of the building to cut it off from the outside world. It had nearly crippled him the last time he had punched through the barrier and he doubted he would survive another attempt, especially in his current condition.

If it boiled down to fight or flight, there was no way he could run away. Not only was it virtually impossible at this point, but there were undoubtedly still a hundred hostages somewhere inside the building, and there was no telling what the Frightful Four would do if left to their own devices.

"Slice him to ribbons," the Wizard ordered. The purple and black clad villain slipped out one of his patented discs that Abe was now all too familiar with, preparing to lob it in his direction. "I'll pick up the pieces when we're done."

Iron Man had enough juice stolen from the Wizard to fire one single repulsor blast. It was hardly enough to guarantee a victory, but he wasn't ready to give up just yet. The wrapped coil around his arm pulled him toward the two awaiting villains. He fought against its pull, barely keeping himself upright. He had one shot at saving himself and it was now or never.

With his other gauntlet, Iron Man charged the repuslor in his palm. He angled his other wrist to catch the tip of the Constrictor's coil, and once he held it between his fingers, stabbed it into the open iris of his repulsor. There was a bright flash, beginning in Iron Man's palm and then following the Constrictor's coil across the room.

The energy backlash trailed around the coil, following the fastest route to ground, which happened go through the Constrictor. His coils had been surgically mapped into his central nervous system, allowing him mental control over the extremities. The energy flowed freely and uninterrupted straight up his arm, dispersing inside his body. The bite of the repulsor beam trailing along his coil was enough to shock Constrictor, seizing all of his muscles at once. The villain screamed as he fell to the floor, with wisps of soft smoke wafting off of his burned body.

"Imbecile!" the Wizard screamed as he watch Constrictor fall. The leader of the Frightful Four heard the stomping of Iron Man's boots across the conference room, and looked up just in time to see a red fist fly at his head.

For as fast as Abe was inside the mostly depowered armor, its sheer weight still hindered him. The Wizard easily ducked under the brunt blow, slipping around behind Iron Man gracefully. The much more slender form of the Wizard easily avoided the haymakers Iron Man threw, left and right. Abe swore to himself, wishing he had more power to operate the servos in the armor. It was like wearing a tank.

"Stand still, damn it!" Abe hollered as his frustration grew.

"Again you display none of the elegance or fortitude of the original," the Wizard replied as he backpedaled. He held twin discs in his hands, removed from the sides of his costume. "Your ingenuity is to be applauded, but I have yet to actually be impressed. You do seem to be more trouble than your worth, and as important as some believe that armor you wear to be, I have the data to build my own if I truly desire. That makes you even _more_ expendable, along with that dented suit."

Iron Man spied a pair of three foot high metallic towers in the doorway to the conference room. "And how expendable is your precious data?"

The Wizard slapped the air in front of him, launching one of his anti-grav discs at Iron Man. The relatively new hero barely dodged the projectile by throwing himself to the side, his bulky and unresponsive armor making it easy for him to fall. He tucked into a roll, something he never would have been able to accomplish in his old armor, and sprung back up to his feet in front of the two computer towers. He was impressed with how versatile Stark had made his armor, allowing him a greater range of movement than he would have expected.

Iron Man placed an open palm above the first databank, pausing as he looked at the Wizard, who stood frozen in place. "Is your employer willing to lose this so you can finish off a pissing match with me?" Iron Man said. "Take one more step and I vape the things." He was bluffing since his repuslors were completely drained, but he was hoping that the Wizard wouldn't figure that out. As bluffs went, it was a shallow one, and Abe was running out of ideas.

"You would willingly place your own company's property at stake?" the Wizard asked. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly in anticipation. "The data in those systems is worth billions. In my hands, possibly even more. What would your own employer think about using it as a bargaining chip?"

"That doesn't matter to me," Iron Man retorted. "I don't work for Stark/Fujikawa. I'm just a solo hero trying to do the right thing, and right now that means keeping you from getting your hands on this."

A low-key hum that had been in the background the entire time suddenly died off. They both shot a glance out of a window in the conference room to see the pink force field the Wizard had erected around Stark Tower, effectively cutting it off from the world, fade away.

"Looks like you're about out of tricks, Wiz."

The Wizard took half a step forward, but stopped himself short. The villain lowered his hand with the disc in it slightly, hesitating and unsure of how to proceed. He didn't want to risk the destruction of his own objective. "An interesting development," the villain said. "A stalemate it would seem. You have something I want, and you seem to have the means to guard it. I ask – do you see this as a wager, a gamble, or perhaps an opportunity?"

"What do you mean?"

"As I said, the information you're so eager to destroy could be worth a fortune. If you have no real allegiance to this company, why not abandon them altogether and join me? You've proven yourself a worthy adversary, and unless I miss my guess you do have a certain level of intelligence that I might find…entertaining."

"Let me get this straight. You not only want me to hand this over, but you want me to join you, too?"

The Wizard risked a smile. "I assure you that I'm a better partner than I am an enemy."

Before Abe could tally a response, a third voice joined the conversation. "And you're an even better inmate," it said.

Abe cocked his head to see who had spoken, when the Wizard sprung into action. Taken by surprise, the villain haphazardly tossed his anti-grav disc around his waist in the general direction of the voice, taking advantage of the moment. The disc shattered in midair as a gun shot sounded; it was blasted out of the air like skeet. Iron Man ran forward, hoping to trap the Wizard between himself and the newcomer and force a resolution to the stalemate.

Abe pulled up short in his own approach when he witnessed a thick strand of glue encase the Wizard's feet, trapping him to the conference room floor. He couldn't help but chuckle when he saw the Wizard struggle against the sticky substance, the chosen tool of his own ally. Iron Man turned to see his uncalled help; a pair of people in the doorway to the room, one standing tall with a smoking gun and the other bent down on one knee with an oozing arm cannon.

"You look like crap, shellhead," James Rhodes said as he stood. The woman behind him, who dramatically blew the smoke off of her SHIELD issue handgun, wore a blue uniform that matched the company she obviously worked for. Rhodes balanced the arm cannon on his hip and added, "Looks like we got here in the nick of time."

Rumiko Fujikawa pushed her way ahead of them both and into the conference room. A lone golden android floated in with her, its red sigil gently glowing. "Thanks to me activating the emergency protocols in the security grid," she said with a huff. "If you hadn't destroyed the other two we would have been here sooner."

"Release me!" the Wizard demanded. "If you wish to face the full fury of my wrat—mm! Mmm, mm m mmm mmmm!"

Hot glue dripped down over the Wizard's goatee as the polymer begun to solidify in place. Rhodes walked over to the leader of the Frightful Four, making sure that his nostrils were still clear. "Fury my ass," Rhodes commented.

Iron Man finally relaxed, thankful that the cavalry had arrived. Sitting behind the group that had come to his rescue he saw the last member of the Frightful Four, Titania, bound up in the same sticky glue and unconscious. He regarded Rhodes, the man who was working behind Rumiko's back to make sure that Abe could fill the boots of his predecessor, and made a mental note to commend the ex-hero. The thought that a few moments earlier, if they hadn't interrupted the Wizard's offer, Abe wasn't sure if he would have been able to turn down the proposition.

After Rumiko inspected the Wizard, she marched straight over to him with her index finger extended in his face. "Hold it right there!" she exclaimed. "Agent 13! Arrest this intruder."

The blonde with the smoking gun stepped out from behind Rhodes, a look of determination on her face. "Oh, come on!" Rhodes said. "Whoever he is, Iron Man obviously came here to help. Agent, wait. As vice president of Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. I refuse to press charges."

"That's not up to you, Mr. Rhodes," Agent 13 said. She holstered her sidearm and moved toward Iron Man, stepping around the floating robotic security android. "SHIELD has an open warrant for whoever is under that iron mask. He's wanted for questioning."

"Whoa, whoa," Iron Man said as he raised his hands defensively. "No offense, sweetheart, but I'm not going anywhere but out of here. The last place I want to be is on a SHIELD helicarrier."

"It's not up to you either. Disengage your armor and surrender peacefully."

"Or what? I'll be a fugitive? Sorry, babe. Been there; done that."

Iron Man made a beeline for the window and dove through it, splashing bits of glass out into the air along with his armored body. Rhodes and Rumiko ran to the window to see Iron Man fall ten stories before slowing to a halt in midair.

Abe, with barely enough power to keep himself aloft, reset his gyroscopes and swiveled in place to look back up at the two people looking down at him. The anti-grav engine in his armor would only be able to function long enough to get him to the Hudson, but that was as far as he needed to go to escape pursuit anyway. He mock-saluted the two executives and flew off into the sky, heading straight for the clouds.

"Damn," Rhodes said half-heartedly.

"Nice going, agent," Rumiko added. "As useless as I found your organization before, it has now doubled. Of all the incompetence—"

Rumiko had turned back to look in the conference room only to see that the only person that could hear her was a mumbling Wizard. Agent 13 had disappeared, and so had the two computer towers.

"Unbelievable," she muttered.

Rhodes slid the Trapster's rig off of his back and rubbed his shoulders. He looked over the Constrictor's unconscious form and smiled. "Should have seen that coming," he added. "Least the Four are down for the count and all the employees are safe."

"But at what cost? Who knows what information that arrogant bitch just made off with?"

Rhodes let out a sigh, finally able to relax a bit. "We'll find out soon enough, and if I know Fury at all, he'll use whatever he can to worm his way into our affairs again."

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE: **Our hero deserves a breather, but he won't be getting one if Rhodes has anything to say about it. Abe gets sent undercover to the last place he wants to be: Hammer Industries! And what's up with Mainframe? 


	7. Gorilla Warfare: Part One

"You want me to go where?"

Abe Jenkins leaned back against the computer console that housed the artificial intelligence of Mainframe, whose computer generated visage was perched on a monitor just over his shoulder. The warehouse near the Hudson, their headquarters, was still mainly empty but a few lavish comforts had recently been added at Abe's insistence. After all, he was a fugitive in two lives; both the Beetle and Iron Man were actively being sought after by SHIELD. The warehouse was the only place he could safely live.

"Hammer Industries," James Rhodes replied as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Did I stutter?"

Rhodes was dressed in a fine suit, and even though he hated wearing it, it was required of him for his position as VP at Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. The morning had begun the same as it always did for Rhodes: wake up, go to the warehouse, run Abe through a series of tests, go to the company and pretend he was leading the investigation into Iron Man's whereabouts. Instead of running Abe through a gauntlet of trials for practice as Iron Man, however, Rhodes had issued a mission to Abe that he wasn't entirely happy with.

"I know that I overheard the Wizard say that Justin Hammer had hired him and the Frightful Four to steal tech," Abe said, "but I don't think it's a good idea for me to dive bomb the place without like, proof, or something."

"**You've been reading those law books, I see**," the simulated voice of Mainframe said sarcastically. "**What Mr. Rhodes is implying is not a mission for your armored alter ego.**"

"Bingo," Rhodes added.

Abe looked between the two of them, causing the flaps of his opened bathrobe to swing. His mouth dropped open as he realized what they were asking of him.

"Oh, you can't be serious…"

"Let me ask you this," Rhodes said. "How does your resume look these days?"

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #7 written by D. Golightly

"Gorilla Warfare – Part One of Two"

* * *

Abe adjusted the restricting tie around his neck for the umpteenth time. He hated wearing something as constricting as a business suit, but Rhodes had insisted. Even though the very thought of what he was about to do abhorred him, he had to admit that it was their best bet at finding out what Justin Hammer was up to.

Justin Hammer was one of the most vindictive people Abe had ever met. Back when he was the Beetle, Abe had made acquaintances with most of the underworld and knew who was pulling the strings on most of the hired operations that villains sometimes undertook. In his experience, Hammer had been the one who hired a lot of them. He had a thing for villains, for some reason using them as muscle when he could have flexed his company holdings much easier. As one of the richest men on the planet, Hammer had the luxury of throwing money around to get things done. Bad things.

"Mr. Hammer will see you now," a red-haired and buxom secretary told Abe.

He stood up, admiring the waiting room one last time. The décor was nothing short of impressive, and he wasn't even inside Hammer's office yet. He tossed a wink at the gorgeous secretary as he passed. Hammer's taste in women apparently hadn't changed since the Beetle had last been in his employ.

Abe pushed open the large wooden doors and stepped into the office. The tile of the waiting room had transitioned into plush carpet that his feet simply sank into, the walls were now a dark blue instead of white, and behind the desk where Justin Hammer sat was a series of thin windows that extended from the floor to the ceiling. Tapestries hung to the right and a mini bar was to the left. The smell of polished oak hit him as soon as he let the doors close behind him. Without breaking pace Abe continued to walk straight to the desk, where he stuck out his hand to the rising Hammer.

"Mr. Hammer," he said.

"Abner," the CEO replied. "Have a seat. I was most curious to hear from you. I had thought you retired."

Abe fell into the comfortable chair on his side of the desk and placed one leg atop the other. "Retirement isn't something men like us are cut out for."

"Too true," Hammer agreed with a soft smile. He folded his hands over one another and leaned back in his own chair, which was obviously more expensive than the one Abe sat in. "So you're still active then? My sources informed me of the little run-in you had with the new Iron Man."

Memories of the ruse he and Mainframe had staged before the world circled Abe's mind. It had been tricky to pull off, but apparently it had fooled even Justin Hammer, one of Iron Man's closest observers. "He botched a hit I had been hired for. Nothing too big. I'll get him back someday. Right now I'm more concerned about the future, Mr. Hammer."

"Ah, aren't we all?" Hammer stood back up and turned around, looking out through the thin slits that were windows into the outside world. "The future is something that few people can appreciate, Abner. As you well know, having been apart of my operations before, I don't allow for random variables in my future. I anticipate it, of course. But I much prefer to _guarantee_ my future as opposed to letting fate take control. Do you understand?"

Abe knew all too well how manipulative Hammer could be, and how he would be more than comfortable selling his own grandmother to ensure that his plans bore him fruit. "Crystal clear, Mr. Hammer."

"Good." Hammer faced Abe again, placing his hands behind his back. "It's an opportune time to come back into my employ. Off the books, of course. But not for your armored side. I need not attract that kind of attention yet. I have a project that your mechanical expertise may be useful in. Would you care for a drink?"

Abe looked over his shoulder at the bar. It was barely passed noon, but that hadn't stopped him before. He stood up and joined Hammer in walking to the bar, gladly accepting the poured drink once it was offered. He sipped it, appreciating the value of the softly burning brandy. Hammer sipped at his own before clearing his throat.

"Abner," he began, "I find myself unable to allow any type of coincidence into my life."

"I'm not sure I follow you."

"What I'm saying is…I don't trust you."

Abner had enough time to raise one of his eyebrows before he heard something crack in the air behind him. A split second later something leathery wrapped itself around his throat, choking down the last few drops of the brandy in his esophagus. He clutched it with both hands as his eyes went wide, understanding the look of contempt on Hammer's face.

"You remember Blacklash, don't you?" Hammer asked innocently. The CEO took another sip of his drink as Abe fell to his knees.

He managed to turn his head enough to see the familiar figure of Blacklash, a one time associate of his. The green and purple fabrics of his somewhat gaudy costume were as unfashionable as ever, but Abe had other things on his mind at the moment, such as trying to steal one last mouthful of oxygen before he passed out.

"Howdy, Beetle," Blacklash said with a tiny wave and an insidious smile. His other hand held tightly the handle of his signature weapon, an electrified whip that he wielded with great aptitude. "Don't take this personally. Business is business."

"I want him alive, Blacklash," Hammer stated. He moved in front of the kneeling Abe and bent down slightly, so their faces were closer together. "I want to make sure he's being honest with me. Tell me, Abner. Why are you here?"

Abe could only let out a gurgling noise until Hammer motioned for Blacklash to loosen the whip. The constricting cord let up after a moment, but still remained in place lest Abe get any ideas. "Money," he blurted out after taking in a gulp of beautiful fresh air.

"Yes, it does make the world go 'round, doesn't it. You do realize that if I think you're lying to me for even one second I'll have our friend here send ten thousand volts through that whip of his, thus destroying your nervous system along with your internal organs."

Hammer nodded and Blacklash retracted his whip fully, leaving Abe to rub at the raw skin around his throat. "Since you haven't been in my employ for some time now, think of this as a reminder as to what our allegiance would mean," Hammer said. "I now own you, Mr. Jenkins. Do as you're told and there will be no need to revisit this lesson. Cross me, and die."

Abe tossed another look to Blacklash, who was boiling up his whip to hang back at his side. It sickened him to think that at one time he had willfully stood beside that maniac, taking on the same tasks and doing the same distrustful deeds. Blacklash simply smiled gently, as if the assault he had just committed wasn't any different than buttering his toast in the morning.

"Okay," Abe muttered with his hoarse voice. "When can I start?"

* * *

"**Hammer's communications network is slightly more complicated than ours**," the pixilated head of Mainframe said. "**But only because it is not as efficiently coordinated.**"

Rhodes leaned back in his chair, enjoying the air conditioned atmosphere provided in his office at Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. The sun shown through the large windows behind him, casting a glare onto the screen that Mainframe was displayed on. He nervously played with a pen as he listened to the artificial intelligence's play-by-play.

"**They seem to have a neural net embedded in their systems also**," Mainframe continued. "**Interesting. If I had more time—**"

"You don't," Rhodes interjected. "Get in, copy the info you need, and get out. I'm apprehensive enough about you using our network at the office to ping your hacking off of."

"**The more firewalls, the better. Rumiko instituted incredible protection when she took over the company.**"

"Even still, hurry it up."

Mainframe's head tilted to the side slightly on the screen, approximating the computer equivalent of thinking. A smaller window beneath his head scrolled information by at far too fast a speed for Rhodes to read, or even recognize. Everything was encrypted, and instead of taking the time to translate the information Mainframe had simply incorporated the encryption into his systems. He was effectively reading the unreadable at the highest over clocked speed his systems would allow.

"Hammer's hiding something," Rhodes commented, more talking aloud to himself than to Mainframe. "But as far as we know he didn't get anything of value when the Frightful Four were here."

"**But SHIELD did.**"

"Yeah, they did. Any idea what was on those towers Agent 13 made off with?"

"**Basic templates for _–screeeee-_.**"

Rhodes stopped fiddling with his pen and sat up in his chair. "Mainframe? You okay?"

"**Daedalus**," the program said. "**My name is Daedalus.**"

"Excuse me?" Daedalus was the pseudonym that Mainframe had been using while covering their tracks within the Stark/Fujikawa networks. Rhodes wondered if the artificial intelligence was just acting in persona given their location. But the computer's automated voice sounded different. Deeper. "What's going on?"

"**Sorry. A slight glitch while I was using my system resources to scour Hammer's network.**" Mainframe's voice was back to normal now, once again sounding distinctly like a muffled version of the original Tony Stark. "**I have located traces of a lone signal broadcast from inside Stark Tower during the Four's insurrection. That signal, received by the Hammer network database, just popped up in my peripherals.**"

"So they _did_ manage to get something to Hammer," Rhodes said eagerly.

"**It looks mostly to be correspondence between Rumiko and one of the R&D stations. Nothing noteworthy…but…wait. Hold on.**"

"What is it?" Rhodes asked, but his attention was ripped away from the screen by a series of knocks against his door. The door began to open a few inches. "Cutting transmission," he said before closing the monitoring program on the screen and erasing any evidence of contact with Mainframe.

"Rhodey?"

Rhodes let out a small sigh when he recognized the voice. It belonged to Happy Hogan, an ex-boxer that had become one of his closest friends. Tony Stark had hired Hogan on as his personal assistant and bodyguard, and after Tony's death he had been a valuable shoulder for Rhodes to lean on.

"Come on in, Happy," Rhodes said as he stood up from behind the desk. "What's up?"

"Sorry about busting in like this, Rhodey," the former strongman said. "Ms. Arbogast said it would okay."

Rhodes swung out from behind the desk, walking toward his friend. He looked upset, which was odd for someone with the nickname Happy. "She loves to send people in without warning. Don't worry about it."

"I, uh…I didn't know where else to go."

"Maybe you should sit down. You don't look so good, Happy."

And it was true. Sweat was beading on Happy's forehead and he looked ready to pass out any second. He pulled out a chair for him to fall into and Happy gratefully slumped down onto the seat. He immediately leaned forward and placed his heads on his head, shaking back and forth slowly.

Rhodes was shocked, unsure of how to proceed. Happy was usually a pretty stalwart guy, rarely shaken by whatever was going on around him. Rhodes placed a hand on Happy's shoulder and said, "Talk to me, man."

"She's dead," Happy muttered after a moment.

"Who's dead?"

"Pepper. I…I think I killed her."

* * *

Even before he stepped into the laboratory he was being led to, Abe was impressed. The halls and rooms they passed through on their way to the subbasement housed random junk that looked to be more technologically advanced than what he was accustomed to, and he was used to working with state-of-the-art.

"Our project leader isn't used to working with other…humans," Hammer explained as he led the way. Blacklash followed behind them, making sure to stay at least ten feet to the rear. "But he's hit a roadblock in his research, something I hope you might be able to overcome."

"Who is he?" Abe asked as he scratched his nose. The sterile hallways smelled of disinfectant.

"His name is Ivan Kragoff," Hammer responded without breaking stride. "He was heavily involved with the Soviet Union space program, but has since come here at my behest. His project involves flawlessly incorporating technology into organics, but you'll see that soon enough. Here we are."

Hammer stopped abruptly and turned to face a solid stainless steel doorway. Blacklash paused accordingly behind them and bit into an apple he had been tossing nonchalantly in his free hand. The other hand, of course, was resting atop the whip on his belt. Abe stopped just behind Hammer and looked the door over, wondering what was on the other side. The name Kragoff sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

A keypad slid open and Hammer inputted a ten digit sequence into it. The mechanisms behind the door's shell unlocked with a muffled _thunk!_ and the door began to open. As soon as Abe could see into the room the name finally clicked in his head, reminding him of where he had heard it before.

Inside the lab were a dozen monkeys, or more specifically, apes. Giant cages lined the walls, keeping the crazed and screaming simians from leaping about the lab recklessly. They varied in size, ranging from ten feet tall and hunched over, to weighing barely a hundred pounds. Most of them looked to the door to see the new entries to the lab, but none of them stopped their howling.

"The Red friggin' Ghost…" Abe said beneath his breath.

"Correct, Abner," Hammer said. He stepped into the lab and Abe followed, but he noticed that Blacklash remained at the door. Given the rampant insanity he saw inside the lab, Abe didn't blame him. "Commonly associated with his apes, the Red Ghost, or Ivan as I tend to refer to him as, is our illustrious and charismatic project leader."

"Now I understand the human reference." Abe looked around the room but saw no form of life other than the bouncing apes. "So where is he?"

The door suddenly closed behind them, locking in place. "I'm standing here…wondering why my benefactor sought to break the rules I instituted in my own laboratory."

"Ivan," Hammer stated coldly without a hint of agitation that they had just been trapped inside a room with a dozen mad apes. "Unless you want me to pull the plug on all of your research—"

"Yes, yes," the ghostly voice said. Abe watched in slight amusement as an elderly man materialized before his very eyes, standing beside the keypad on the wall beside the door. His voice was dripping with a European accent. "We agreed that you wouldn't bring random tourists here to bother me."

"This is Abner Jenkins. He's not a tourist, he's your new assistant."

The Red Ghost scoffed. "I'll save you the trouble. I don't need an assistant."

"Really?" Hammer placed his hands behind his back and got the same look on his face just before he had Blacklash strike down Abe. "Then I take that to mean you've solved the rudimentary cortex interface problem?"

The wrinkles on the older man's face contorted into a look of displeasure. "No," Ivan answered. "But I will."

"My time table doesn't have room for you ego," Hammer said. "Abner is a master engineer. I have confidence that he'll solve your problems."

Hammer reached passed Ivan to input the sequence to reopen the door. He shared a scowl with the Red Ghost before stepping out of the room and closing the door again, sealing it shut and leaving Abe behind with the older villain. There was an uncomfortable silence between them, regardless of the fact that a dozen screaming simians were rattling their cages behind them.

"Umm..," Abe finally said. "How about you catch me up on what exactly you're doing here."

The Red Ghost scoffed a second time. "And permit you to steal my research? I think not."

Abe recalled all the information he had heard about Ivan Kragoff. He usually worked alone, aside from his ape compatriots of course, so the fact that he was inside Hammer's facility must have meant he was desperate. Or Hammer had something on him. Once a proud scientist, Kragoff had attempted to duplicate the process that had given the Fantastic Four their powers, using his apes as test subjects.

He was a genius to be sure, and his powers of invisibility, as Abe had just witnessed, were still in working order. He had to assume that Ivan's ability to become intangible was just as healthy.

The Red Ghost brushed by Abe, letting their shoulders smack into each other. He began to attend to the closest of the howling apes, giving Abe an excuse to step closer to the cages and get a better look at what was going on.

A number of instruments were monitoring the cages, with wires and computers spread out along the floor in front of them. There were several screens per cage, each displaying variables that Abe assumed were vital statistics. Ivan shot him an irritated look but remained focused on the first ape he had come to, which had calmed now that its master was within arm's reach.

"Hammer said something about meshing tech with organics," Abe said while glancing over the equipment. "Does that mean you're working on cybernetics?"

"The integration of a neural net into a post-pubescent animal is not something I anticipated as being so…difficult," Ivan replied after a small sigh. "Not that I expect you to understand."

"I thought you had a specific team of apes. Three of them. I don't recognize any of these guys. What happened to them?"

"If you must know, they died of cellular degeneration as an aftereffect of cosmic ray exposure. That's part of the research I'm doing here, attempting to stabilize the side effects. Now, unless you have something pertinent to say, I would prefer—"

Abe held up his hand, cutting the Red Ghost off. "When I first constructed my original Beetle armor I had a problem with rudimentary cortex interface, too. Hammer mentioned you're having problems with that when we walked in. If you're really trying to integrate that kind of a neural net with the apes' nervous systems, I think I know where you're screwing up."

"I do _not_…screw up. I—"

"The human brain functions mostly through the correct sequence of synapses firing when they're supposed to," Abe continued. "I'm betting that since primates don't have as developed a cerebral cortex as we do, their synapses fire differently. That means your base program is calibrated wrong."

While the Red Ghost's mouth hung open, Abe stepped by him and started to type on one of the keyboards connected to a monitor. His fingers danced across it, accessing information that was more detailed than what was already presented on the screen. "Whether you're plugging these chimps into a toaster or a tank, they're going to need base code so that their brains can talk to the implants," he said as he typed. "I noticed the surgical scarring on Kong here. I assume you've stuck something inside him for whatever reason and now his body is rejecting it. Or ignoring it altogether."

Abe stopped typing and swiveled the screen to face Ivan. The statistics that were throbbing up and down wildly when he entered were now leveling off, which made the Red Ghost's open mouth form into a small smile.

"I have no idea what the hell you're up to," Abe said. "But I do know a thing or two about cybernetics. Whatever you implanted these guys with should work now that I've programmed in a base code. Now, this isn't a full time solution; this is just the foundation. Given enough time I can program unique code for each ape. But to do that, you're going to have to tell me what it is we're doing."

"I told you. I'm trying to stabilize the cosmic ray exposure—"

"Radiation doesn't need stabilizing after the fact," Abe broke in. "If these apes are already mutated then there isn't anything you can do other than make them comfortable while they die. So unless you want me to go give Hammer the lowdown on you lying to him, you better cut me in."

The Red Ghost opened his mouth to speak, but held his words back. The older man looked surprised. Better yet, he looked interested. Abe had waltzed in and solved something he had been working on for quite some time, and now the insinuation that he was somehow double-crossing Justin Hammer was hanging in the air between them. Abe realized the outright disrespect he had displayed by acting the way he had, but decided to just run with it. It had never been his style to just sit back and wait for things to unfold. If he was to plant himself firmly in Hammer's operations, this was the only way he knew how.

He just hoped he wasn't jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"Very well," Ivan finally said. "You're correct in assuming that Hammer doesn't need to know about every aspect of my research. I'm not lying when I say that the procedure to replicate the abilities of my former simians was successful. The cybernetic implants do not stabilize the radiation, as I've led Hammer to believe, which you deduced."

"So what do they do?"

"Increase their power tenfold by maintaining a steady stream of particles synthesized to rejuvenate the mutated DNA."

Abe took a step back as he looked over the apes in awe. "You're telling me you surgically implanted something into their cerebral cortex…that augments _cosmic rays_?"

The Red Ghost shook his head slowly, and his small smile steadily grew into a sinister sneer. He rubbed one had into the other, looking foolishly like a stereotypical mad scientist. If the image he presented was known to him, he ignored it, seemingly lost in the possibilities of what he was explaining.

"You're correct…Abner, was it? I think that with your help I just may be able to take over the world after all."

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** Abner has successfully infiltrated Justin Hammer's company, but how far will he go to maintain that trust? Plus, Happy is arrested for murder! 


	8. Gorilla Warfare: Part Two

"You'll never believe what this crackpot is up to."

Abner Jenkins spoke in a quiet, hushed tone as he cautiously looked around the general vicinity to make sure no one overheard him. His newly acquired position within Hammer Industries was a delicate one to say the least. If the wrong person caught him in the southwest stairwell talking to James Rhodes his life would be instantly placed in danger.

"Try me," Rhodes replied via the cell phone connection. "Kragoff is a fruitcake."

"He found a way to augment the effects of cosmic ray exposure in his pet apes. I fixed the glitch he was having and now he's about ready to start mass-producing a simian army. The guy's gone over the edge, and Hammer is totally in the dark. He's under the impression that the Red Ghost is developing a process to grant superpowers to human test subjects."

Abe thought he heard something in the upper levels of the stairwell and stuck his head over the edge to look up. He heard a door slam shut but there weren't any footsteps coming his way. He let out a held breath and returned the cell phone to his ear. He had been there for less than a day, and already he was spooked. Being in a building controlled by the infamous Justin Hammer wouldn't be good for his health in the long run.

"Obviously you're going to have to shut him down," Rhodes replied.

"Hammer or Kragoff?"

"Kragoff. You haven't had enough time to spy on Hammer yet and learn what it was that the Wizard transmitted to him. This might actually be beneficial. Stop Kragoff and get on Hammer's good side; earn his trust."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Abe demanded in a low, raspy voice. "It's not like I can armor up while I'm here. And wasn't Mainframe supposed to hack Hammer's systems and find that info out? I thought I was here just to keep an eye on the guy."

"Use your imagination for Kragoff. The guy's notorious for being a loose cannon. I'm sure he's left himself vulnerable somehow." There was a pause and Abe thought he heard someone say something to Rhodes in the background. "I have to go. Mainframe got something out of Hammer's systems but I had to cut contact before he could tell me what."

"Where are you? What's more important than this right now?"

There was another pause while Rhodes listened to someone speaking on his side of the phone connection. "I'm at a court hearing and the judge is threatening me with contempt if I don't hang up. Happy was arrested for murder today. Contact me when you can."

There was an audible click as Rhodes ended the call and Abe was left in the stairwell staring at his own phone. He was more confused than ever and apparently things were steadily going from bad to worse. There was no time to lull over the matter, however. He pocketed the phone and began to march down the stairs to the lower levels where the Red Ghost's lab was, trying to form a plan along the way.

He had an idea of what to do, but if it didn't pan out then he knew he might as well paint a target on his chest and call it a day. If he was caught he was sure that Hammer would have Blacklash fulfill the promise he made when hiring him, and Abe was a big fan of breathing.

"First day on the job," Abe muttered as he pushed open a door and exited the stairwell. "Hope Hammer offers a nice life insurance policy."

* * *

IRON MAN

Issue #7 – "Gorilla Warfare – Part Two of Two"

Written by D. Golightly

* * *

Rhodes clapped his cell phone shut, hanging up on Abe and ending the call. The judge game him an irritated look but motioned for the state attorney to continue with his argument. The courtroom was filled with a few dozen people, all of whom were waiting for their turn to stand before the judge and be given either a bail amount or remanded to the state's custody.

Happy stood beside the lawyer that Rumiko had appointed, looking worried. He hadn't been given an orange jumpsuit yet, but his hands and feet were already shackled to keep him from running. Normally a hearing like this would have been at least a week away, but Rumiko Fujikawa had pulled some strings to speed things up. Plus, having a staff of thousand-dollar-an-hour lawyers to make the right calls didn't hurt either.

Rhodes was still shocked over what Happy had told him. Happy had been sobbing in Rhodes' office, saying that Pepper had been shot and that he had been the one to pull the trigger. Happy remembered doing it but he had no idea why, and oddly enough, he couldn't remember _when_ he had shot her, only that he had.

The whole affair stunk to high heaven, but Rhodes had told Happy to cooperate with the authorities and turn himself in. If he was innocent then it would be stupid to hide this from the police and it would only made him look more guilty.

Rumiko sat beside Rhodes, staring intently at the judge. She looked calm, but Rhodes knew that she was anxious and worried. He didn't blame her.

"Who were you talking to?" she asked after she leaned over.

"Uh…just trying to track down a lead on this whole Daedalus thing. I've got a guy inside Hammer's operation. I think he's involved."

Rumiko nodded. Rhodes doubted that she would normally accept an answer as vague as that, but she was obviously preoccupied with other things. He made a mental note to revise his cover story and be more careful in the future when lying to her. He couldn't afford to underestimate her, regardless of his opinions.

He did a mental double-take. Opinions? What opinions? His only concern for Rumiko was a professional one…wasn't it?

"Your honor," a young, well-groomed man wearing an impeccable suit, Happy's lawyer, said, "I'd like to reiterate the fact that my client is not a flight risk. He doesn't even possess a passport, _and_ he turned himself in. Surely that should—"

"Your honor," the opposing lawyer said, cutting him off. "The state isn't interested in bargaining with a murder suspect of such a high profile."

"It's that profile that makes it ridiculous to assume that my client would run. Where would he hide after the media storm that is already brewing?"

"We request remand, your honor," the state attorney responded, ignoring the comment. "Considering the friends Mr. Hogan has within Stark/Fujikawa, as shown by the expensive lawyers on their payroll, funds obviously aren't a concern meaning that flight isn't only possible, it's inevitable."

"Your honor," Happy's youthful lawyer began to argue, but a wave of the judge's hand cut him off.

"I'm inclined to agree, counselor," the judge said. "Given that Mr. Hogan has been fronted a team of attorneys through simple friendship, there isn't much to stop Ms. Fujikawa from lending extradition as well. Bail is denied." The judge finished off his sentence by slamming his gavel down hard, causing Happy to jump.

A pair of bailiffs came to take Happy away, gripping both of his forearms to guide him. He took a few feeble steps in the shackles and tossed a look over his shoulder at Rhodes. Desperation was evident in his gaze, and Rhodes wished he could have jumped over the wooden divider and shoved the guards away.

He knew someone had set Happy up, he just didn't know how, why, or more importantly, who.

* * *

"Where have you been?"

Abe punched in the code to shut the security door to the Red Ghost's lab and stalked across the room, doing his best to ignore the wailing apes. "Smoke break," he replied, answering Kragoff's question. "Had to get away from all the yelling in here. How can you concentrate with all this noise?"

"You get used to it." The Red Ghost returned his attention back to the console that Abe had programmed a new base line code into only hours ago. "The interface seems to be assimilated now."

Abe nodded. He sat down at another workstation in the lab, again marveling at the amount of sophistication. As a master engineer he had experience working with some of the most state of the art equipment in the world, only to now be impressed with systems he had never even heard of. Justin Hammer, a rival of the late Tony Stark, had apparently assumed that money was no object when he set up Kragoff's research.

Amongst the tables were several gizmos that Abe had no idea what they were for. Some seemed to be used for taking tissue samples, others for injecting various agents, and still others looked like they were straight out of a science fiction television show. The most prominent of these was a handheld, circular device that had beveled edges and very few angled sides.

"I hope you realize what a generous gift it is that I've given you," Kragoff continued.

"What's that?"

"A place in the new world order. Once the power of my simian army is realized, there will be no stopping me. Think, Abner…once the cosmic power inside each of my beauties has matured, they will each possess wondrous abilities that would rival the strongest of heroes. Strength, speed, endurance. Nothing could stop them and they would be loyal to only me."

Abe shifted in his seat uncomfortably at the thought of Ivan Kragoff being in command of an unstoppable army. "And where do I fit in?"

A small smile curled at the edges of the Red Ghost's thin mouth. "At my side, of course," he replied. "You've proven your worth in such a short time."

"I'm still getting up to speed on what it is you're doing here," Abe commented. "You're sure that Hammer has no clue about all this?"

The Red ghost smiled. "Naturally. That industrialist only knows what he wants to. He makes assumptions and tends to ignore everything else, regardless of the façade he perpetuates. He has no reason to doubt my intentions and firmly believes that I'm developing technology to give his lackeys incredible powers that would rival even the original Avengers. He's a fool."

"Cosmic radiation is dangerous stuff. How did you even find a way of exposure?"

"You may have solved my initial problem, but don't think you've yet earned my trust. The secret of that exposure is something Hammer provided, but I'll not reveal it yet."

"So you don't trust me…but you still want me to help you take over the world."

"What is trust?" the Red Ghost asked as he moved to the next cage, checking the vital statistics of the ape held within. "I could care less how you feel about me as long as you do what you're told. Once the Super Ape Army is amassed there will be nothing that can stop me, let alone your issues of human trust. My only question for you is motivation."

"Pardon?"

"As I well know, there is no reason to agree to Hammer's terms unless he has some kind of leverage against you," the Red Ghost explained. "Thus I know the reason you came here – because of him. But now I'm having you betray that trust and work for me _against_ him. Why would you agree to that?"

Abe thought to himself that he had to be careful here. He needed Kragoff to be distracted so he wouldn't notice what he was doing at the console, and the longer this conversation went on, the better. "First off, don't make assumptions. I'm here for money, plain and simple. Hammer doesn't have jack on me."

"Or that's what he would have you believe. _Trust _me, Abner. Hammer does not make deals that he cannot exploit later. If he didn't have something to hold against you when you first approached him, he soon will. And even if you don't believe that, why turn against him at my request?"

"Hey, if you're talking about making an army strong enough to knock down anybody that gets in their way, there's more profit in it for me to help you."

"So greed is your only motivator," Kragoff said. Abe nodded again and shrugged slightly. "Your lies are clearly visible, but none of my concern as long you aid me. The unique programs you mentioned…"

"Working on them now." Abe continued to type quietly. He kept his head down and worked quickly, hoping that he could upload a certain string of code fast enough before Ivan would notice.

Kragoff had successfully implanted devices that would amplify the effects of the cosmic ray treatments that the apes had undergone. The implants released a steady stream of control particles into the apes' bloodstreams, helping to adjust the genetic mutations caused by the radiation. Even though the apes has already been exposed to whatever Kragoff and Hammer had done to them, their powers still hadn't fully matured. The inherent problem was that the beasts' brains were rejecting the implants, until Abe had coded them correctly to interface with their cortexes. It was a general code, something he had created all those years ago when he had first donned his original Beetle armor.

The code would work, but not as efficiently as it would if it were unique for each user. So, Abe was now hard at work creating a specific string of code for each ape, making the chances of them stroking out much lower.

Or at least that's what the Red Ghost thought.

Abe looked over the code on his screen one last time before hitting the 'enter' key. "All done," he called over the top of his monitor. "I'm uploading the final sequence directly into Kong's brain…now."

"Excellent," Kragoff replied as he moved in front of the beast's cage. After a moment of watching the statistics monitors, he nodded approvingly and stepped over to the next cage. Abe held his breath.

Nothing happened.

He looked back and forth between the screen and Kong, wondering if he had slipped up somehow. He was sure of his coding, sure that he had uploaded something directly to all of the apes' brains that the Red Ghost would kill him if he found out. But nothing had happened. The apes all continued to casually scream and Kragoff continued to move between the cages. What had he done wrong?

After another long heartbeat, the apes all stopped making noise. There was no chance that it was a coincidence since all of them had been noticeably been silenced at the _exact_ same time. Abe looked around his workstation to see Kragoff looking through the cages with a worried look on his face. A small bead of sweat glistened off of his brow as he ran from one ape to the next.

"What happened?" Kragoff demanded with a raised voice. "What did you do?"

"Looks like the program I uploaded is resetting their brain functions," Abe replied as he stood. "It's okay; they'll be fine. It's just…taking a second for them to reboot."

Abe took in a deep, satisfying breath and let it out slowly. He knew that he apes wouldn't be making any noise now, and they certainly wouldn't be okay. They were all now paralyzed from the program he had uploaded, which was a never-ending number generator that was throwing off their synapses. Their brains were slowly filling up with infinitely long randomly generated number sequences, the process of which was confusing their neurons. They wouldn't die, but they wouldn't be helping the Red Ghost to conquer the world either.

Abe chided himself for never learning to be patient. He had worked himself up and doubted his skill for nothing. Melissa had always told him that he was like a little kid when it came to waiting.

"They are _not_ fine," the Red Ghost said coldly. The wrinkles on his old face were beginning to contort into a deathly frown. He shot a look at Abe and said, "You're killing them!"

He stood quickly and took a few steps back. He suddenly remembered that he hadn't thought out how to get away once he had uploaded the code sequence. In retrospect maybe he should have waited, but he knew that if the apes were allowed to reach maturation, the Red Ghost would never be able to be stopped.

"Undo whatever you just did to them!"

"No can do, Ivan," Abe responded. "Their brains are all shutting down. No Super Ape Army today, pal. What kind of a name is that for an army anyway?"

"You imbecile!" The Red Ghost cleared off a counter filled with instruments in one fell swoop of his arm, scattering them across the laboratory floor. He muttered something in what Abe thought could have been Russian, and regardless of the language Abe got the message: he was pissed.

"Why?" Kragoff asked as he took several more steps closer to Abe. "Why would you help me…only to betray me?"

"Guess I just couldn't trust you."

The Red Ghost screamed, his anger bubbling over into his throat and through his lips. He charged Abe and as he did so his form oddly began to become translucent. The ceiling lights behind him were now visible _through_ his body, amazingly. Abe backpedaled in shock, and just before the Red Ghost completely turned invisible he saw his gloved hands coming straight for his throat.

Abe swung wildly with his right fist, connecting with what he hoped was Kragoff's head but felt more like his shoulder. An invisible hand graced his throat as he jerked back, stumbling over a chair and tumbling to the ground. He would give just about anything at the moment to have even one of his gauntlets, charged with a repulsor blast. As it was he was armor-less, powerless, and at the mercy of a madman that could alter his own molecular structure at will.

He rolled onto his feet and jumped up, running around the workstation. Since he couldn't see the Red Ghost he was going to have to guess where he was. He was at a serious disadvantage now but if he could somehow make it to the exit he had a chance at getting away clean.

"The righteous power of control could have been yours!" Kragoff screamed. His voice bounced off of the lab walls, doing little to help Abe pinpoint his position. "I should have known better than to place faith in someone provided by that fool Hammer."

Abe stumbled back against one of the long tables that were spread throughout the room. He reached behind him, hoping to grab something, anything, that might be of use to him. He felt something smooth and his fingers wrapped around it, ready to pull it in front of him when he could figure out his next move. He looked to the trapped apes, all of whom stared off blankly into space as their minds filled up with endless, useless equations. He thought Kragoff might try to do something to free them, but as it was they were probably considered to be dead weight to the madman.

"Your faith wasn't misplaced," Abe said, "but your ego was. Do you really think I would let a nutcase like you get that much power?" He doubted that Kragoff was even paying attention to him, but he needed to get him talking again. It was the only way he could hope to discern his location. "Your best friends aren't even evolved! What makes you think you've got what it takes to rule the world?"

"Shut up!"

Abe heard a shuffle of feet on the floor directly to his right and he swung the object in his hand around. He gripped it tightly by the handle and pointed it in the general direction of the noise, seeing for the first time what it was. There were several instruments strewn about the lab, and he had no clue as to what any of them did. The item he had palmed, a smooth device with a handle and rounded front side with beveled edges, looked oddly familiar. He pointed it like a gun and fingered the trigger on the underside of the casing, hoping that whatever the device did would be enough to stop the Red Ghost in his tracks.

A white electrical discharge seared out from the device, blanketing a wide area of the lab. Several arcs of lightning danced out and struck random tables and chairs in the laboratory, but one central beam, much thicker than the other stray blasts, latched onto something in midair. The smell of burnt flesh quickly invaded Abe's nose and he turned away, nearly vomiting from the stench.

Kragoff screamed. Abe turned back just enough to see the mad scientist shimmer back into view where he was caught by the white lightning streaming from the device Abe held. The Red Ghost convulsed uncontrollably until Abe released the trigger, and then fell to the floor. Smoke gently rose off of his body, rising to the ceiling where it fed into the air vents. Abe looked the smooth weapon over in his hand and then looked back at the unconscious Red Ghost, and smirked.

"Guess you were right about those trust issues," Abe said as he stepped over the Red Ghost and walked toward the exit.

* * *

Justin Hammer stood in his office with his back to the door, staring out into the evening through the thin windows behind his desk. He had removed his suit jacket and hung it over his chair, and loosened his tie somewhat. He looked like a man who had just completed a long day at the office, and even though his age might add to the effect, he was no where near as tired as he looked.

The last few rays of streaming sunshine fell behind the horizon and night fell, leaving the only type of illumination in Hammer's office to be artificial. A lamp on his desk with a green cover gave himself enough light to work at his desk, but the rest of the office remained dark. He preferred it that way. He found a certain solace in the darkness, a quiet unearthly companionship that he doubted most would understand.

The large doors to his office opened and a man stepped through, whose eyes couldn't quite adjust to the dramatic difference in darkness. "You wanted to see me?" the man asked.

"Yes, Abner. Come in."

Abe shut the doors behind him and entered the office. He stepped up to just a few feet away from the desk, where the lamp there placed a soft glow over the front of his body. Hammer turned to look at Abe, placing his hands behind his back much like how he had that morning after agreeing to hire the former villain.

"I thought we should discuss what happened today," Hammer finally said.

"Oh. Well, Kragoff was only pretending to—"

Hammer cut Abe off with a wave of his hand. "Yes, yes. I'm well aware of his betrayal. He was only using my resources to further his own interests."

"You knew?"

"Of course. Did you think that I wouldn't be aware of what happens in my own building? Or that I would actually trust a reckless loner like Kragoff? I knew he was lying to me the moment I set up his operation. I monitored his progress and granted him leave to continue."

"So…if you knew about what he was up to, why didn't you stop him?" Abe inquired.

"Oh, had he succeeded in raising his army I would have taken control immediately. As it was he wasn't much of a threat and I had little to lose in letting him continue with his work. In fact, I stood only to gain if he learned how to augment the effects of cosmic radiation. Knowledge like that, I'm sure you can appreciate, is priceless."

"Then if you're all knowing, why am I here? If you could have afforded to wait on Kragoff to solve his own problems why send me down? Hell, why even tell me all this?"

Hammer opened one of the drawers in his desk and withdrew the smooth device with beveled edges that Abe had used to take down the Red Ghost. He held it like he knew how to use it, which startled Abe, although he didn't let it on. Instead he watched Hammer open the back compartment and pull something out, something that thrummed with a certain energy that Abe could feel press against his skin slightly. Just looking at the thing made him want to take a step back. Whatever the thing from inside the device was, it was powerful.

"I sent you to Kragoff as a test," Hammer said. He balanced the object, a glowing cube, in his palm and stared at it as he spoke. "If you deduced what he was up to and joined him, I would have had you killed before the day was over. However, even in the face of all that opportunity, you remained loyal to me. I will not forget that, Abner."

Abe swallowed. He hadn't realized how close he had come to being on Hammer's bad side. The billionaire was even more manipulative than he remembered from his time spent as the Beetle.

"Now that I know you can be trusted," Hammer continued, "I'd like to offer you an opportunity of my own. Take Kragoff's place."

"And do what? I don't know anything about monkeys."

"The means does not matter, only the end. It was the result of Kragoff's work I was after, not what he used to achieve it." He held the box-like item out for Abe to see. "Do you know what this is?"

Abe shook his head.

"It's called a cosmic cube. I acquired it through some…_unconventional_ means, but it is the genuine article. The instrument you used to soundly defeat Ivan Kragoff was how he channeled cosmic radiation into his pets. The cube is the true course of power that Kragoff initially studied. I now wish for you to learn what you can about the cube."

He reached out to touch the cosmic cube, but quickly pulled his fingers back when he came within a few inches. He squinted and saw what looked like millions of stars floating inside the tiny prism and was in awe of the possibilities. The engineer in him was intrigued, but the mindful part of his brain that kept him from walking into traffic without looking told him to beware.

Still, he was accomplishing what he had set out to do, and what Rhodes had instructed him to discern. He was in Justin Hammer's good graces and with luck he would start getting some answers.

"Okay," Abe said after a quiet moment. "I'm in."

"Excellent," Hammer replied with a smile.

While Hammer's voice hadn't actually changed, Abe still thought he heard the faintest whispers of a forked tongue as the billionaire spoke. His brain told him to run, but he knew he couldn't. He was already in too deep to turn back now, even if he didn't want to accept Hammer's offer.

He was forced to admit to himself that he was curious, and a part of the life he left behind, the criminal life, felt alive once again.

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** Two issues with no armor? That's going to have to change right away. Abe sets out to help Rhodes find out who framed Happy for the murder of Pepper Potts, and what they turn up will have them stunned. It's a done-in-one tale that involves some classic Iron Man foes!


	9. Backdoor Bloodshed

"Happy Hogan is _not_ a murderer."

The voice of Jim Rhodes, while filtered through the electronic earpiece in Abe's helmet, still held a sense of pride and authority. Abner knew that there was no way for Rhodes to see the expression on his face, but he still couldn't help but try and maintain a perfect poker face as he held back a sigh. He knew from working with Rhodes over the last few months that arguing was nearly pointless.

"I'm just saying," Abe replied, "he might not be as innocent as you think. In a world where the Mandarin can hold a respectable position in the business world, a guy like Happy killing his ex-wife might not be such a crazy notion."

Abe, guised behind the Iron Man defensive armor, soared over the Hudson and on into a patch of white clouds. He had just sprung forth from the water, masking his initial exit from the warehouse where he, Rhodes, and the computer program known as Mainframe ran their operations. No sooner had he left than the argument he had tried to end inside the warehouse began anew.

"Happy and Pepper were reconciling," Rhodes explained over the comlink. "They were getting along better than ever and had started forming more serious plans for their relationship. Plus, I _know_ them. I can vouch for them, which should be all you need to hear."

"Since my last girlfriend was a crazed psychopath, I expect I understand jealous rages a little more than you do. Happy's innocent until proven guilty, but that doesn't mean he gets a free pass right out of the gate."

"**It should be noted**," the slightly tinted voice of Mainframe said over the comlink, "**that Happy turned himself in, cannot give a definite timeline, or provide motive. That is why, Abner, you are being dispatched to the supposed location of Pepper's death**."

"Still doesn't mean anything," Abe grumbled as he adjusted his gyroscopes to avoid a gaggle of geese.

"What it _means_," Rhodes iterated, "is that you learn what you can and report back."

"Yeah, I'm in the suit, aren't I?" Abe suppressed another sigh and shook his head. "I'm in deep enough as it is with Hammer, okay? I don't need grief from you, too."

"**I admit I am surprised that you were able to sneak away**," Mainframe commented. "**After you successfully gained his trust by thwarting the Red Ghost, I would have thought he would keep you locked in his laboratory**."

"Once we're done here I need to shoot back over to Hammer Industries. I told him I'm taking care of some loose ends so I can commit to the research more. This thing with the cosmic cube is creepy as all hell."

"Any updates on that?" Rhodes inquired.

"No, I'm still catching up on Kragoff's notes. Plus it's hard to snoop with Blacklash watching me like a perverted hawk. All I've found out so far is that whatever info he had the Frightful Four steal from Stark/Fujikawa is involved with the cosmic cube research. Kragoff had notations about the sonic disrupter schematics that Mainframe pulled from their systems."

"Alright, one thing at a time then. I'm headed over to the office to keep up appearances. Rumiko will be all over me if I don't get caught up on this proposal to potential investors. Mainframe will run things on this end. Keep your eyes open, Iron Man. You're coming up on the crime scene now."

As Iron Man approached the city he began to descend. The armor's antigravity engine, a miracle of the Stark/Fujikawa Research and Development department, responded to his commands perfectly. The jets in the soles of his boots, which were easily the match of most much larger turbines, gave him precise control over his velocity. The suit still didn't have quite the cornering capability of his old Beetle armor, but he had quickly adjusted to the unique designs of the late Tony Stark. Once he had figured out what Justin Hammer was up to and he had some free time, he planned to start incorporating his own equipment into the armor.

Soon enough, Iron Man touched down onto the top of an empty roof in New York's strip district. He glanced around and made sure he was where Happy had told Rhodes where he remembered being awoken, caked in the blood of Pepper Potts.

To his dismay, there was still dried blood on the roof, meaning that no matter what Rhodes told him, Abner was sure something had happened here that someone didn't want uncovered.

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #9 written by D. Golightly

"Backdoor Bloodshed"

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Abe was no closer to discovering anything about what had really happened on that roof than when he had left the warehouse. There were spots of dried blood all across the flat pavement, a few scuff marks that showed signs of a struggle, and that was it.

"Let's go over this again," Iron Man said. "What did Happy say happened?"

"**He remembers waking up here with his hands drenched in blood**," Mainframe answered. "**He can also recall stabbing Pepper with a knife repeatedly, although he cannot recall his frame of mind at the time. Her body has not been found, nor has the murder weapon. After briefly panicking, he went to the nightclub across the street to clean himself up, and then went directly to Stark Tower where he went to Rhodes' office and turned himself in**."

"No body and no murder weapon means all we have is his side of the story," Iron Man said as he thought out loud. "Hard to prove anything without those little key pieces of evidence."

"**The prosecution had Happy submit to a polygraph test. He truly believes he killed her**."

"I'm switching to the spectral analyzer in the visor," Iron Man stated after pausing to collect his thought. "Make sure you're recording the video feed."

Abe swapped through the options on his heads-up display, selecting the proper channels to change the filaments in his visor lenses. The scene instantly changed from a clear view to a darkened one, with several energy signatures showing up in his field of vision as if they had been painted into the air. He saw his own green exhaust energy trail behind him rise off into the sky. Most of the trails were probably from the radio and investigative equipment that the police had hauled onto the roof to discern what had happened. However, there was one clear, bright blue trail that led off in an opposite direction from his own that didn't seem to make sense.

"Someone else has been here," Iron Man said. "Someone who wasn't supposed to be."

In the corner of the only entrance and exit into the building on the roof, a stairwell door, Iron Man spotted a red blotch that looked to still be glowing brightly, meaning it was still active. He charged his repulsors and cautiously stepped toward it, steadily walking to its side just in case it turned out to be an explosive or something else equally problematic.

Upon seeing what the red blotch was, he lowered his gauntlet and switched off his repuslors. "Just a security camera. The police must have already gotten a copy of its recording. Looks like it's still online. Mainframe, think you can patch in and see what it saw happen on the roof?"

"**Plug yourself in and we will see**."

Iron Man slid back a compartment on his left forearm and outstretched a thin black wire. He reached the cable up to the back of the security camera and plugged it into the s-video knob. Instantly a window opened up on his HUD and displayed access to the video logs housed within the building's computers. He saw his own image from a different perspective, that of the security camera. He waved a hand in front of it and watched his double to the same, albeit a split second delayed.

"You getting this?"

"**Affirmative**," Mainframe replied directly into his earpiece. "**I can access the logs from here and pipe the feed into your visor**."

"Good. Let's take a look at the night Happy got crazy."

The window on his display began to rewind, showing Iron Man cautiously walking in reverse from the security camera, looking around, and then flying off from when he had landed twenty minutes ago. The image started to blur as Mainframe accelerated the playback, zooming through hours in mere seconds.

The scrambling video feed stopped abruptly as Mainframe brought it to the exact frame they were searching for. Pepper stood alone on the roof, squared up almost perfectly with the camera. She rubbed the sides of her arms vigorously to keep the cold away, and she looked around nervously.

A few moments later she swiveled on one foot and stared off camera to a specific point. Her mouth moved but no sound came out.

"No audio?" Iron Man asked.

"**The system is several generations behind the latest standard**," Mainframe replied as the scene continued to play out in his visor. "**This office building is largely used by start-up companies and therefore the landlord sees little reason to provide high-tech protection.**"

Abe frowned beneath his red and gold helmet but watched the scene unfold curiously. Pepper looked striking in a long gray coat that could have been any color, seeing as how the image was only black and white. If the lighting in the background was any indication it appeared to be just after dusk on the rooftop.

Her mouth continued to move and her face became more and more agitated. Someone from under the camera took a few steps toward her, but not enough to yet reveal his face. Pepper jumped back as he came closer, apparently scared of his presence.

Suddenly, the man beneath the camera lunged at her and Abe saw that he was swirling a knife in his hand. He plunged the blade into her chest several times, stabbing almost rhythmically. Blood poured out of the wounds and coated the man's arms as Pepper fell to the roof, motionless.

The attacker stooped over her body for a few moments, breathing heavily. His broad shoulders lightly bounced in time with his breathing and he stumbled back from the corpse resting at his feet. Slowly, he turned to face the camera and Iron Man saw for the first time the face of the man that had killed Pepper Potts. He paused momentarily before dropping to the roof himself, seemingly passing out. Still, there was no mistaking the face of the murderer.

Harold "Happy" Hogan.

"Have the police seen this?"

"**Nothing has been released**," Mainframe answered, "**but I assume that they have acquired this footage and have already turned it over to the D.A. It would be standard procedure and they would have no need to publicize evidence until the trial**."

"When this comes out the press will crucify him. A trial will just be a formality."

"**Abner, I believe this footage has been doctored**."

Iron Man jerked his head in surprise. "Seriously? It looks pretty real to me. How can you tell?"

"**I have been looking over the individual frames as you watched them at regular speed**," the computer program explained. "**It appears that in the real footage the man standing in Happy's place is not him. This video recording, while superficially accurate, has been altered digitally. Happy's image has been overlapped onto the real killer's.**"

"That's great news! This will prove his innocence and Rhodes will get off my back. Can you…uh, un-doctor it?"

"**I cannot. All I can do is prove that the recording has been tampered with. The original image of the killer has been erased**."

Iron Man pondered over the information and remembered the bright blue energy trail his scan had shown. "But I bet we can track whoever it was back to where they came from."

After quickly disconnecting the cable from the back of the security camera, Iron Man launched himself abruptly into the air with the aid of his antigravity engine. The suit responded remarkably to his subtle gestures and manipulations, and even though he hadn't been beneath the iron mask for as long as his predecessor, he still felt near perfect control over the exoskeleton.

He kept the energy trail in his sights and blazed through the air, twisting between buildings just as the trail did. He traveled several city blocks in mere seconds but it wasn't long until he recognized where he was headed.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

The energy signature he was following wound higher into the air, reaching the highest elevation of the skyscraper it fed into. He knew the building more than any casual observer, as he had recently been hired there as part of a sting operation: Hammer Industries.

"**It would seem that Mr. Hammer has been busier than we expected**," Mainframe chirped into Abe's ear.

Iron Man hovered a block and a half away from the building that Justin Hammer owned and operated most of his illegal activities out of. "If I crash the place now I'll get no where. Hammer will call in his goons before we can figure out what happened on that rooftop. If I'm going to find out what Hammer has to do with this I'll need to ditch the armor."

"**Is that wise**?"

"No…but neither is most of the stuff I do."

* * *

The door to Rumiko Fujikawa's office was typically closed with her secretary on guard. Jim Rhodes, upon approaching the office, was surprised to see it opened several inches and her secretary no where to be seen. He gently placed his hand on the doorknob and pushed it open further. He stuck his head inside and asked, "You wanted to see me?"

His eyes located Rumiko before anything else registered in his brain. He saw her sitting in a plush chair in the corner of the room, where he guessed she would now and again relax throughout the evening when working late nights. Her feet were propped up on the coffee table in front of the chair and her head was rolled back onto the top of the chair. The way her chest slowly moved up and down suggested to him that she was sleeping.

He took a step into the room and noticed for the first time what a mess everything was. There were piles of papers on her work desk, some of which had spilled onto the floor. Several cardboard boxes were stacked haphazardly about the room with their lids thrown carelessly on the floor. He wasn't quite sure, but the fichus in the opposing corner looked like it hadn't been watered in weeks.

"Who's that?" he heard Rumiko say lazily as she struggled to sit up and shake the sleep from her eyes.

"It's me. Are you okay?"

"Fine." She ran both her hands through her hair as she leaned forward on the chair and yawned. "What did you need?"

"You asked to see me," Rhodes replied. "You had some questions for me?"

"Oh, right." She placed her hand on the arm of the chair and tried to push herself up, but halfway through the motion decided she was better off remaining seated. Rhodes regarded her and couldn't help but feel a small amount of pity for her. "We need to go over Happy's case before we meet with the attorneys tomorrow. And I want an update on the SHIELD inquiries and this Daedalus problem."

Rhodes walked over to her by way of her work desk, snatching up a pitcher full of water on the way. "Here," he said as he filled the glass on the coffee table and handed it to her. "We can do all that later. You look wiped. When's the last time you got any sleep?"

After she slurped down half the glass in one gulp she replied, "Is it bad if I can't remember?"

Rhodes couldn't help but let out a scoff. "I'd say so. Listen, I can handle this stuff. Why don't you head home and—"

"Can't go home. I'd rather be here anyway."

Rhodes blinked. "Is everything okay?"

Rumiko fixed him with one of her glares but it broke after only a few seconds. She sunk back into the plush chair and pulled in a deep breath. After a moment she waved her hand and said, "My father is visiting."

"Oh," Rhodes responded as if that simple sentence explained everything.

"He was supposed to arrive shortly after this Iron Man imposter showed up, but I assured him things were well under control and that he needn't come. But when the Frightful Four infiltrated Stark Tower he saw it as too large a security risk to not be here personally."

"I haven't seen him here in the building."

"No, and I doubt you will. My father much prefers the comforts of his yacht while in America. He's operating the company from there while I provide him with endless research and information from here. It's…beginning to take its toll on me. Going home would show too much weakness."

Rhodes sat down on the other arm of the chair. He remembered how difficult it had been when first working with Rumiko and her father just after Tony Stark's death. He had to fight them in a bitter struggle to retain certain aspects of the company. When they first bought out the company Rhodes he thought they would dismantle it and take the technology. Instead, Rumiko had surprised him by keeping the majority of Stark's holdings in place. In fact, now that he thought about it he realized that it had been Rumiko's father that had tried to liquidize parts of the company and if it hadn't been for her he wouldn't have been able to stop it.

She looked so different now than when they had first met. Despite her overbearing personality she sometimes let through the real her. He looked at her sitting nearly exhausted beside him and before he could stop himself, before he could think, before he could think twice about it, he bent down, cupper her chin in his hand, and kissed her.

She didn't pull back right away, but instead let her lips linger on his. After a few seconds that might as well have been a full year, she broke the kiss and placed her hand on his shoulder. She didn't push him away but the semblance was clear.

"I think you should go," she whispered as she bit her lower lip and looked into his eyes.

"Yeah." He bent down toward her again and before their lips met he said, "Yeah, I should."

* * *

"Good evening, Mr. Jenkins."

Abe waved casually at the secretary as he passed through the lobby. He had stashed the armor somewhere safe, opting to wear civilian clothes, and returned to Hammer's headquarters, hoping to sneak to the upper levels and find more clues. So far everything was going fine, which meant his luck was going to run out soon enough.

He stepped into the elevator after crossing the huge lobby and pressed the button for the twentieth floor. As soon as the doors slid shut he palmed a device out of his pocket and slid a section of it open. A red lens popped out that he held over his eye, showing him relatively the same view as his visor had when switched to the spectral analysis setting.

"Are you sure this will work as good as the helmet?" he asked aloud.

The earpiece, which was barely visible to the naked eye, vibrated Mainframe's answer directly into his ear. "**It will not provide a detailed analysis for anything over twenty-five feet, but yes, it will work. The trail seemed to lead into a window on the twentieth floor. Once you are there cover as much square footage as you can and you will undoubtedly find something.**"

Abe nodded even though he knew that Mainframe had no way of knowing that he did. He wanted to speak directly to the program as little as possible while walking around inside the lion's den. The last thing he needed was to call attention to himself unnecessarily.

The elevator pinged as it reached the twentieth floor and the doors slid open. Abe took half a step forward but paused when he saw who was staring at him: Blacklash.

"What are you doing up here, Beetle?" the caped villain asked.

Abe's neck twitched in a phantom pain, recalling the recent choking he had received on the other end of Blacklash's patented whip. The two had worked together on various jobs over the years but there was no love between them. Blacklash was a hired thug and he would kill someone without batting an eye, even family.

"Still getting acquainted with the building," Abe said quickly, before his hesitation showed. "Hammer said I need to check this floor out for some reason."

Blacklash stepped into the elevator as Abe stepped out. He stared Abe down as they traded spots. "You more of a lab rat these days, Beetle. I liked you better in the armor."

"Times change."

"Not always for the better." Blacklash reached out and pressed a button on the side panel of the elevator. "Don't tell Abbot that. I hear enough of his shit as it is, going on like the Cold War still exists. He's in the back room, which is probably what Hammer wants you to see. If you hurry you can catch him before he heads out."

The elevator doors closed and Abe was left staring at the blank wall. He knew the name Blacklash had used so casually from being within the same circles as the villain. Sinclair Abbot, otherwise known as Spymaster.

Things were already starting to fall into place. Abbot was a master of espionage and if there was only one person who would be able to set up Happy Hogan it was him. He needed to get into that back room immediately. He checked the hallway he had stepped into to see if there would be anyone to see him use the analyzer and then slid the device out of his pocket once more.

After placing the lens over one eye, Abe saw faint traces of the energy signature lingering in the hallway. Whoever the trail belonged to, they hadn't flown straight through the corridor, but the trace amounts of the energy had apparently lingered on them. The confirmation was the same regardless of the explanation: the person Abe was looking for had been here.

He returned the lens to his pocket and walked to the far end of the hallway, passing several doors along the way. Each had a palm print scanner beside the entrance in place of doorknobs, meaning that if he wanted access (assuming he was granted it) his passage into whatever room he chose would be logged. Hammer would know he was here.

Deciding that simply standing outside the door wouldn't help anything, Abe took in a deep breath and placed his hand, palm open, on the panel. A light behind the plastic cover slid over his palm like a copy machine, reading his hand print. A few seconds later there was an affirmative chirp and the door slid open for him.

_Looks like Hammer trusts me more than I thought_, Abe thought as he stepped into the large room.

The room, which seemed to occupy at least half of the floor, was mostly dark. There were large tables with some type of machinery stacked on them and piles of wires lying on the floor. As he stepped over he saw what looked to be a gauntlet very similar to his own resting on one of the larger tables. It was supported by a few thin, steel bars, holding it a few inches off the surface of the table.

Before he could examine the gauntlet, he heard a noise from somewhere to the side. He jumped in surprise, assuming that Abbot had snuck up on him as the Spymaster was prone to do. He heard the noise again and picked out where it was coming from in the darkness. It was muffled, as if behind a blanket or wall.

The noise sounded a third time and Abe locked in on it. It was coming from behind a door across the room. He looked around and saw that no one else was there, then moved to the door and wrenched it open quickly.

Inside, tied to a chair like a scene lifted from a bad movie, was Pepper Potts.

She mumbled something but the gag over her mouth kept it from being audible. Abe pulled the gag down around her neck and she exhaled, saying, "Don't hurt me! Please, I don't even know why I'm here!"

"Relax," Abe replied. "I'm here to get you out of here."

He started to pull at her bonds and then stopped, realizing that if he freed the captive Pepper that it would be obvious that he had been the one to do it. There was a log of his entry into the room and Blacklash had seen him. He couldn't let Pepper go without some kind of story in place.

"Who are you?" she asked quickly, the excitement of being set free making her talk faster. "How did you find me? Where am I? …why did you stop untying me?"

"Sorry, I'm…uh, just a little shocked to see you alive is all."

Abe briefly recounted Happy's arrest and his pending trial. With each sentence her face grew longer and paler. "Oh my God," she finally said after he finished explaining. "The last thing I remember before waking up here was walking to my car one night after work. Someone grabbed me and I'm not even sure how long ago it was! I've got to get out of here. C'mon! What are you waiting for? You came here to rescue me, right? Start rescuing!"

"I can't just let you walk out of here. We need a plan. Or else both of us will be caught."

"Who the hell _are_ you?"

"That doesn't matter right now." Abe growled a bit and finished untying Pepper. He had an idea of what to do but it would still look bad for him in Hammer's eyes. He would need to think of a good explanation later. "Look, I need to know where Spymaster went."

"The freak in the red and black costume? I'm not sure, but I thought I overheard him telling the guy with the whip that he was heading out to finish the job."

Abe helped Pepper out of the chair and she started rubbing her wrists. They stepped back out into the main room and Abe slipped the lens from his pocket over his eye again, finding that the energy trail he had been following was all over the room. Waves and waves of the signature coated the large room, but one trail was distinctly brighter than the rest, marking it as freshly created. That particular signature disappeared through the wall and presumably rose off into the air outside the building. Spymaster must have left just before he had entered.

Abe tapped the earpiece wedged inside his ear and said, "I need you to take control of the suit."

"Huh?"

"Not you," Abe said to Pepper. "Back-up."

Abe relayed his instructions via the earpiece to Mainframe, who, after arguing momentarily, complied. Within a few moments there was a harsh pounding coming from the same wall that Spymaster had disappeared through. Pepper squealed in surprise, but Abe remained motionless as he watched the hollow Iron Man suit bash its way inside. Mainframe was operating the armor by remote after taking control of it where Abe had stashed it in a safehouse a few blocks away.

The red and gold armor floated over to them and touched down on the floor. It turned away from them and the back of the suit began to open up, ushering Abe to step inside its skintight confines.

"What's going on?" Pepper inquired. As she watched Abe slip into the upright waiting armor, she gasped and added, "_You're_ the imposter!"

"I'm also rescuing you," Abe said, his voice now filtered through the Iron Man helmet. "I'd appreciate it if you kept seeing me a secret. We don't have time to discuss this now. Security will be here soon. We have to leave."

"But how—"

Iron Man scooped Pepper up in her arms and rose into the air, his antigravity engine supporting them both. He flew out of the hole that Mainframe had created and ignited his boot jets, propelling them through the air at a high speed. Before he was out of range, Iron Man aimed one of his repulsors at a dumpster in the alley below and squeezed off a single shot. The dumpster was overturned easily enough by the powerful blast and left in cinders. Within moments they were blocks away from the building, assuming safety on a street corner. Iron Man lowered Pepper down and ignored the onlookers. She carefully placed her feet on the pavement and blinked as she looked up into Iron Man's covered face.

"Call the police," he told her. "Tell them what happened."

"Where are you going?"

"Leave out the part where I wasn't in the armor, okay?"

Iron Man shot back up into the air and left the confused, but thankful, Pepper behind. He switched his visor back over to the spectral analysis again and homed in on the exiting trail that the Spymaster had left behind. He adjusted his course accordingly and accelerated the throttle as high as it would go.

"**That was stupid**," Mainframe said into his ear.

"The lens didn't pick up any recording equipment on that floor. If I can stop Spymaster before he does whatever it is he's doing, I can get back to Hammer Industries and provide a cover story. Maybe."

"**Maybe is the operative word**."

"Can the negativity and let me work, okay?"

The energy trail blazed as clear as a beacon in the sky, which Abe followed closely. Presumably, Spymaster didn't have that much of a lead over him. If he could catch up quickly he had a shot at catching him before something bad happened.

The trail led Iron Man in a clear path over the city, barely turning at all. He flew passed the strip district and into the business district, apparently leading somewhere specific. Before long Iron Man's long range scanners picked up an object not far ahead of him, but he couldn't see anything that looked out of place, such as a flying supervillain.

The trail dove toward the ground and went into the side of a building. It was the first deviation from the flight path since leaving Hammer Industries. Wherever Spymaster was headed, it was somewhere with a purpose. He had followed the signature to a building marked as a business called Quantum Dynamics, LLC.

"Run down everything you can on this place," Abe told Mainframe through their connection.

Without waiting for a reply, Iron Man rocketed down through the sky, following the trail straight into the side of the building. Strangely, the trail went through the brick wall without a mark just as it had coming out of Hammer Industries. He figured that wasting more time by finding an appropriate entrance would mean that Spymaster would have more time to accomplish whatever goal he had. So, Iron Man placed his fists over his head as he dove and smashed through the brick at the exact spot Spymaster had entered.

Bricks, mortar, dust, insulation, and other debris exploded inside the building as Iron Man burst through the wall. His armor not even scratched, Iron Man charged his repulsor rays and scanned the interior. It looked like a normal office building, complete with cubicles, ceiling fans, and even a water cooler. The area was completely vacant of human life except for two people: Spymaster spun to look at Iron Man even as the man kneeling before him execution style spat out a mouthful of blood.

"What the—" Spymaster exclaimed as he turned the futuristic handgun he wielding from the back of the kneeling man's head to point at Iron Man.

Iron Man activated his personal force field and a translucent, rippling second skin covered his armor. Spymaster ducked and pulled the trigger of his weapon, discharging several blue blasts of energy. The attack was harmlessly absorbed by Iron Man's shielding but he couldn't return fire without risking hitting the unknown man that Spymaster had been about to execute.

"**Abner**," Mainframe said, catching Iron Man off guard.

"Not now!" Iron Man scolded as he tried to angle around the cubicles that Spymaster had ducked behind.

"**Quantum Dynamics is owned by a man named Felix Judd**."

"I'm a little busy for useless information right now!"

"**Abner…after looking into the research that this company does, I think that Felix Judd is the alter ego of the Ghost**!"

"_The_ Ghost?" Iron Man looked at the man who had been bloodied almost beyond recognition and tried to remember if he had ever encountered the other villain before. "Is that…is that him?"

"**Tony Stark was never able to unmask the Ghost before**," Mainframe explained quickly. "**It very well could be**."

The water cooler exploded from one of Spymaster's stray blasts, showering Iron Man with streams of cold water. His force field shook off the liquid easily enough, but in the tight confines of the office he was finding it difficult to maneuver.

"Screw this cat and mouse shit," he muttered as he charged down the row of cubicles.

He charged his repulsors and unleashed a torrent of built energy at the thin, gray, faux walls. He made sure to keep his aim angled to the right and away from the barely conscious kneeling man, and completely blanketed the entire side of the office space. The repulsor beams tore the cubicle walls to shreds easily and knocked Spymaster up against the nearby back wall. His head was protected from the red and black body armor he wore, but the force of being thrown without warning had jilted him.

Iron Man made a beeline for the unnerved Spymaster, gripping him around the throat and lifting him off the ground. He slapped the strange discharging weapon out of his hand and fixed him with a cold stare. "What are you doing here?" Iron Man demanded.

"Like…like I would ever tell you…" Spymaster managed to choke out.

"I'll tell you what the hell he's doing here." The man that had been about to be killed when Abe busted in feebly stood up and spat out another mouthful of blood. "Hammer sent him to kill me. Cover up. We framed that Hogan guy and now Hammer wants me out of the picture."

"Why did you frame Hogan?"

"Hammer hired both of us," the man said. "He wants to flush _you_ out. Guess he figured if he made the people in Stark's old company targets that you would show up sooner or later. I lent my tech to Abbott here and he's been using it to fly around and phase through walls, making it simple to frame someone without being seen."

"And now that the trap is set Hammer is tying off his loose ends," Abe added, piecing the parts together. "You're Felix Judd? You're the Ghost?"

The man rubbed one of the bruises that Spymaster had inflicted on him and replied, "Not anymore. I was ready to sell the company I used to fund my technology and get out of this game. Another reason Hammer wants me dead. He doesn't trust me to keep quiet. Things changed since the Heroes were killed. It's a different world…I'm a different man."

Abe nodded in understanding. He knew what it was like trying to fit in to a world that fought against your acceptance. "Grab whatever you need from here and leave. Don't come back."

"**What are you doing**?" Mainframe proclaimed.

"If you testify in Hogan's defense," Iron Man continued, ignoring the program, "you won't ever get away from Hammer. He'll hold the grudge for incriminating him. I already have evidence that Hogan was framed. Plus…I have him." He shook Spymaster gently but kept his grip firm and in place.

Felix nodded. "Thank you," he said before stumbling around the corner and disappearing, possibly for the last time.

"Now," Iron Man said, returning to look at the squirming Spymaster. "Let's talk about how you're going to turn yourself in…"

* * *

Not even an hour later Abe had returned to Hammer Industries. The police were swarming the building, which made it difficult for him to get into the side alley without being noticed. He had shed the armor once more, instructing Mainframe to guide it back to the warehouse base. It had taken some convincing, especially since they were in disagreement about how he had let the Ghost go. Spymaster had been turned over to Code: Blue, the city's special department for apprehending superhumans. It had also taken some convincing for Abbott to go quietly, but once Abe's gauntlet had formed a dent in it things went much smoother.

Abe couldn't help but think about how things were getting complicated at an exponential rate. Hammer was getting his dirty hands into just about everything he could. First he had raided Stark/Fujikawa, and now he was setting up friends of Tony Stark in order to flush the new Iron Man out. And what was the gauntlet doing on the twentieth floor? Had Hammer been able to extract schematics for the armor from the information the Wizard had sent to him?

At least Happy would be freed. With the video from the rooftop revealed as doctored, coupled with Spymaster's cooperation and the fact that Pepper hadn't been murdered, Happy stood a good chance of being released soon. Spymaster had explained how Happy had been manipulated, using some of the Ghost's technology, into truly believing that he had killed Pepper. Apparently Felix Judd had been developing mind control technology alongside his intangibility devices. Once Happy was set up as the perfect patsy, who believed that he had even committed the crime he was bring framed for, it didn't take much for Spymaster to kidnap Pepper and then falsify the security camera's feed.

Abe shook his head and wiped away the thoughts. He had to stay focused on keeping himself out of the spotlight. They would be looking for him soon and hopefully the story he would give them when Hammer's forces found him would be believable.

He slid under the overturned dumpster that he had upended upon leaving the building when in pursuit of Spymaster. He had been in the room when Mainframe had guided the armor in to rescue Pepper and there was nothing he could do to change that fact. Blacklash would be suspicious, but maybe his cover story would work well enough to give him time.

The part that had sucked the most was getting Mainframe to use the armor to break his arm. After he was found lying under the overturned dumpster, he would tell them that Iron Man had busted through the wall, grabbed Pepper, and flown back out to escape. He would say that he had courageously jumped onto Iron Man's back to try and stop him, but that the shellhead had shaken him free and he had landed in the dumpster, smashing his arm to pieces. He would also try to convince them that Iron Man had overturned the dumpster to trap him there and keep him from getting help.

His arm hurt like hell, but he would live. As he squeezed under the dumpster he winced in pain, but was able to get into a position that made it look like he had nearly been crushed.

Once Hammer's goons found him, which would be very soon, he had to keep his story straight. It would probably be the only thing that would keep Hammer from having Blacklash choke the life from him.

As he settled in to wait to be found, he mumbled quietly to himself, "I'm asking Rhodes for a raise…"

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE**: Another fantastic one-shot co-written by the amazing CW Russette! Hercules has been reborn and is shocked to learn that someone has taken the late Iron Man's place. Two titans will collide when ol' Herc calls out Abe to test his mettle! Plus, a villain from the past makes his presence known…


	10. Clash of the Titans

The Statue of Liberty, commissioned in 1876 and then presented to the United States ten years later, served as a welcomed sight to the immigrants seeking refuge in America. It was a sign to many of rebirth or of new beginnings. Appropriate, then, that a newly reborn god was climbing it from the base up using nothing but his hands.

"Aye, lovely lady," Hercules said as he grasped another hold on the face of the statue. "Worry not. I'll not bruise your metal flesh. I merely seek a high point to issue my challenge."

The copper sheeting that covered the skeleton of the statue would be relatively easy for Hercules to bend, given his incalculable strength. Therefore he gracefully pulled himself and his weapons up the side, drawing more than a little attraction from the watching crowd on Liberty Island.

A news helicopter circled nearby with one of its passengers aiming a bulky camera out of the side hatch. The spectacle Hercules had been a major part of just thirteen months ago had put him in a bit of a limelight with the media. When he had been spotted climbing the towering statue, the news crews had scrambled to get their first shots of the hero. This chopper was undoubtedly only the first in what would be a plethora of news crews covering the scene.

Hercules adjusted the thick bowstring strapped across his chest as he grasped another hold. His mace hung at his side and the arrows resting on his back beside his carved wooden bow bounced minutely as he climbed.

He swung his foot up onto the right shoulder of the statue, admiring the large torch it held over its head as he stepped out onto the arm, taking his first break from climbing. "A wondrous sight for the Prince of Power to behold," Hercules remarked as he dusted off his hands. "Aye, this shall be a fine place to present my gift."

He turned around and looked up to the face of the statue. He bent at the knees slightly and with a minimal amount of effort, jumped into the air and catapulted himself up between the spikes of the crown. He landed delicately atop the statue's head, touching down as if he had just hopped a few feet in the air as opposed to the height he had reached. He secured his mace at his hip and slipped his bow off of his back, placing its bottom on the head and testing the tightness of the bowstring. With a few flicks he nodded in satisfaction and then looked to the sky.

"Fair weather," he stated with another nod. "Zeus has provided me with a fine day."

He walked to the edge of the crown and motioned to the news helicopter to come closer. At first the pilot was hesitant, as too often the media had gotten too close to heroes and been caught in something worth staying away from. But at the insistence of Hercules, the chopper finally came close enough for Hercules to be heard over the roar of the blades. The microphone attached to the camera had difficulty picking him up, but the strong lungs of the son of Zeus did much to carry the god's words over the noise of the chopper.

"Hear me, Iron Man!" Hercules hollered. "I, mighty Hercules, bid you a challenge! Face me in battle and prove your mettle lest I rip your chosen mantle away by force!"

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #10 written by D. Golightly

& C.W. Russette

"Clash of the Titans"

* * *

"Well…this sure is a crappy way to start out my day."

Jim Rhodes smirked and let out a single breath of a laugh at Abe's comment, but he didn't pull his attention away from the twin screens on the console in front on him. The screen on the left was showing live footage of Hercules standing on top of the Stature of Liberty issuing his challenge, and the screen on the right displayed the floating head of Mainframe, an artificial intelligence based on the late Tony Stark.

"**I am sure that Hercules means you no harm**," the digital voice of Mainframe said. "**It was never in his nature to pick a fight without good cause. Whatever his reasoning, I doubt he believes he is in the wrong.**"

"Are we watching the same feed?" Abe Jenkins, the latest to don the armor of Iron Man, replied. "He's outright threatening me!"

"Sounds more like an invitation to me," Rhodes added. "You better suit up."

"What? You can't seriously expect me to go out there!"

Abe waved his hands over his head slightly in agitation. The warehouse they were in was unoccupied aside from them, leaving Abe enough privacy to house his retrofitted Iron Man defensive armor. Ever since the demise of the heroes at the hands of Onslaught, the world was in desperate need of good men to fill the void. Abe, for reasons all his own, had eventually left his criminal ways behind and stepped up to fill that void, even just a little bit. He had quickly learned since becoming Iron Man, however, that being a hero wasn't always easy.

"You're going," Rhodes stated.

"Let's take a moment and review, okay?" Abe stuck out his hand and stuck up his index finger. "First, he's a god. Second, I'm a recovering crime-oholic. Third, he's a god. Fourth, Justin Hammer ordered me to report in today. Oh, and fourth…_he's a god_! He'll kill me!"

"You'll be there and back in time to meet Hammer. Armor up."

Abe pushed out what sounded like an exhausted sign of irritability. He shook his head and placed his hands on his hips, striking a defiant pose. "No way. I didn't sign up for this. No one said anything about one of the freakin' Avengers calling me out."

Rhodes rubbed the bridge of his nose as he said, "Abe, do you remember when you issued your first statement to the media? You said that Iron Man was back and that you would do the right thing, because that's what heroes do. Well, this is just like that. You need to be held accountable by the other heroes just like you do the general public. You said it yourself back then: this is the court of public opinion. If you don't show up people might start thinking you have something to hide."

"But I _do_ have something to hide! What do you think that Ahnold impersonator is going to do if he finds out I used to be the Beetle?"

"**What do you think he will do if you do _not_ show up?**" Mainframe inquired. "**Hercules is many things, but he is not a quitter. He _will_ find you if you do not answer his call.**"

Rhodes arched an eyebrow and maintained his stare. Abe, flustered, let his arms fall off his hips and turned to walk to where his armor was kept. Outnumbered, and possibly outsmarted, Abe Jenkins mentally prepared himself for what was sure to be an interesting encounter.

* * *

"So how would Tony Stark have gone about handling this?" Iron Man said into his helmet's comlink.

"**I can only guess**," Mainframe replied through the ear piece. "**I am only a basic imprint of Tony Stark's personality. I have memories of working with Hercules through the Avengers and given those I can safely say one thing.**"

"What's that?"

"**Do not make any sudden movements.**"

The Statue of Liberty wasn't very far from the warehouse Abe resided in, only just across the Hudson and a few miles up. He wished that he could live a more public life, but with someone like Justin Hammer as your new employer, it probably wasn't safe to rent an apartment under his own name. Or any name, to be honest. To make things more difficult, both Rumiko Fujikawa and Nick Fury were eager to ask him a few questions, too.

And now Hercules.

Becoming one of the very heroes he used to fight with on a regular basis had already taken a bit of a mental toll on Abe. As the Beetle, things were easy and decisions came fast. Whether it was ripping off an electronics company for himself or someone else, being a villain seemed infinitely easier than wearing the good guy clothes. Now that he was Iron Man, he had assumed that things would work out even easier. After all, who would give a hero a hard time? But that hadn't been the case. Not at all. It seemed like now that he had switched sides he was more sought after than before.

As Iron Man approached, his used the options on his HUD to zoom in on the Statue of Liberty's crown. A pale green covered the statue's copper skin, but at the top the man he was coming to chat with stood out remarkably well. He doubted he would have to augment the visor's zoom very far, seeing as how a strapping archetype couldn't hope to hide against such a background.

"No sudden movements, huh?"

"**Keep in mind that we are not sure of his exact reasoning yet**," Mainframe said. "**He may be here on friendly terms, but given what I know about Hercules, I doubt this is an entirely innocent encounter.**"

Iron Man neared the top of the statue and made eye contact with the muscular Hercules. His hair was shorter than the last time he had seen him. His scanners automatically locked onto the mace hanging at his side and the arrows strapped to his back, marking them in red circles that indicated potential weapons. Abe swung around and circled the statue a few times, using his boot jets to smoothly form the flight pattern. Hercules subtly stepped around in the same spot, keeping his eyes locked onto Iron Man.

Finally, after three revolutions, Iron Man kicked his legs out in front of him and touched down onto the tip of one of the crown's points. He wasn't ready to be close to Hercules yet. Being here was enough to make him apprehensive. He would keep his distance for the moment.

"It would seem you are unsure of something," Hercules remarked. Even though his deep voice issued the words in a casual manner, there was a certain hardness to them, as if he was being weary himself. "If thou art a true hero as claimed, you have no need to fear me."

"Forgive me if I seem a little standoffish," Abe replied, his voice synthesized through the helmet.

"**Remember**," Mainframe chirped into his ear, "**stay calm and you will be fine.**"

"Aye, I can appreciate your role," Hercules commented with a slight nod. "Who better than Hercules to sympathize with a warrior in skin not his own? For years I wandered as a man unlike myself, caught between worlds that I had an attachment to. Now, the fence I straddled has been reset, much as you seem to have been."

"Reset?"

"Aye. Born again. This world is in dire need of heroes. For this I have called you out, Iron Man."

"I'm not sure I really understand."

Hercules smirked. "I present you with my gift, and if you are noble, then I permit you to bare the mantle you have taken up."

"**Abner—**"

"Gift?" Iron Man asked, ignoring Mainframe momentarily.

"Aye," was all Hercules said before launching himself at Iron Man.

The pseudo-god of strength was faster than Iron Man would have given him credit for. Before his targeting computers could react Hercules had closed the distance between them with his hop and latched a clutched hand onto his shoulder. His left hand holding Abe in place for but a second, Hercules right hand then balled into a fist and smashed into Iron Man's facemask.

Alarms sounded instantly inside the helmet, startling Abe even more than the punch. The armor was bent not only from where it had been struck, but grooves had been formed around Hercules closed left hand also. The armor plating invented and refined by the late Tony Stark had been molded, shaped, hammered, pelted, cooled, and then repeated nearly a hundred times. With each fold of the composite metal, it's durability increased by threefold. That, along with the special compounds incorporated into the armor and the secret treatments it was given to strengthen it, made it some of the most durable matter on the planet.

But that was science, and science meant little to a man like Hercules.

Iron Man reacted by stepping back off the tip of the crown's spire he had perched on, igniting his boot jets to shoot away and get some distance from his onset attacker. But Hercules didn't release his grip. He instead pulled Abe back in, tossing him with one hand like a rag doll across the crown's surface. Iron Man's boot jets weren't synched with his anti-gravity engine and so instead of flying off once thrown, he crashed into the lip of the crown.

"What the hell!" Iron Man swore.

"**I tried to warn you**," Mainframe chirped. "**Hercules always referred to his fighting prowess as a gift. _His_ gift. Meaning that to him fighting is almost a form of communication.**"

"Perfect. So what do I do?"

Before Mainframe could answer, a sharp _thwang!_ sounded and something struck Abe in the chest. It hit him hard. Real hard. He had already gotten up on one knee, but whatever had collided with him, which even through the armor felt like another godly punch, knocked him back over onto his side.

A schematic of his chest plate popped up on his HUD, showing in red where something had punctured the outer layer of his armor. He sat up, looked down, and was shocked. There was an arrow sticking nearly a centimeter into his chest plate. It was one of the arrows that only seconds ago had been firmly resting in the quiver on Hercules back.

Even if the arrowhead had been made of pure adamantium, Abe knew that general physics would have kept it from puncturing his armor, even as little as it just had. The amount of force necessary to actually drive something to pierce his armor would be almost astronomical, mathematically speaking.

He yanked the arrow out, let it drop, and fixed Hercules with a glare. The cold and dented helmet presented a rather menacing look, which caused Hercules to smile.

"I have your attention," Hercules stated and grinned as he readied another arrow, balancing the end of it on the bowstring. Even from across the top of the statue's crown Abe could hear the string stretch and fight against Hercules' pull. Whatever that bow was, it wasn't natural.

"I'll give you a lot more than that, you jerk."

Iron Man kicked his boot jets on, thrusting up the throttle as high as it would go. He pushed off the inner lip of the crown and stretched out his arms over his head just before he crashed into Hercules. The force of using his own body as a missile took Hercules off guard, sending him flying out into the open air. The god grunted when struck, although Abe didn't get the sense that it was from a sense of pain; more surprise than anything else.

The anti-gravity engine that had been a secret project of Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. nearly two years ago halted Iron Man's own momentum. It was because of that specific device that he was able to exert a limited amount of control over his trajectory, but the armor still hadn't been able to zip around a corner with the precision of his Beetle armor. Still, it was what he had to work with.

As Hercules fell a dozen feet down in the open air, his limbs flayed out from the strike, Iron Man used his targeting computer to lock on to him. "**Maybe you could quit while you are ahead**," Mainframe suggested as the blinking red icon slipped over top of Hercules' image.

The iris of Iron Man's central, chest-mounted uni-beam opened up and unleashed a single stream of raw energy, which struck Hercules in midair. The blast slammed into the falling god and even though it only lasted a split second, it was enough to hasten his fall to the ground from imminent to immediate.

"He started it," Iron Man muttered defensively.

Hercules impacted into the concrete base of Liberty Island, punching a human-sized crater into the foundation. People had already begun to scatter once Hercules had issued his challenge, leaving only a few brave observers nearby that were well out of harm's way. Aside from three news helicopters, Iron Man and Hercules had the monument to themselves.

A breeze washed over the island, blowing off of the surrounding water. It shifted Iron Man slightly where he hovered, but he maintained his gaze at the crater. He didn't want to risk taking his eyes off of it. To his amazement, Hercules sat up inside the crater and stood as easily as if he had been shoved over on the playground.

"Whoa. What does it take to shake this guy?"

"**For someone who has subdued the Hulk**," Mainframe said, "**probably more than that. You should try and talk your way out of this.**"

Iron Man slowly descended, leaving his targeting computer locked onto Hercules brooding form. He lowered himself to a few dozen feet directly overtop of the muscular hero and said, "Are you satisfied yet?"

"Satisfaction is discovered, not given, and mine has yet to be found."

Hercules bent at his knees for a split second before he launched himself straight up, sailing straight for Iron Man. He struck Abe just below the jaw with an uppercut that brought an entire galaxy of stars in front of his eyes. Once his jump had overtaken Iron Man, Hercules then kicked down hard into Abe's back, sending him now flailing into the same crater he had just been evacuated.

Proximity alarms sounded but there was nothing Abe could do. He smashed head first into the crumpled ground, wishing that he had stayed in bed that morning and ignored Rhodes entirely.

He wheezed and groaned, but managed to open his eyes. His HUD was on the blink, showing bits of information in clumps instead of scrolling it. His general sensors were offline but motor function remained. His targeting computer was done for. Anything he did from here on out was going to be his skill alone.

He reached up and placed a hand out of the crater, pushing down on the flat concrete to help stand up. A second later he felt a foot stomp down on that same hand, making him wince.

"Oh, c'mon! You can't even let a guy stand up, for crying out loud!"

"Human, you are unworthy to even grovel at my feet."

Behind his helmet, Abe blinked. That voice definitely did not belong to Hercules. He felt a hand clasp onto the top of his chest plate behind his beck and yank him out of the crater. He found himself looking directly into the smooth, silvery, metal face of a monster more deadly than just about any other villain he had encountered in his long career.

Ultron.

Abe squirmed, his eyes latched onto the oversized mouth that took up the majority of Ultron's face. "Where the hell did you come from?"

"I am everywhere," Ultron responded as energy bubbled up inside his mouth. "I will appropriate your technology into my own. Assimilation is imminent!"

"**Abner, you must get away, _now_!**" Mainframe urged.

Iron Man placed his open gauntlets on either side of Ultron's rounded head and let loose with his repulsors. The energy shook Ultron's entire body, forcing the deadly robot to lose his grip.

Slipping away and hovering up above Ultron, Iron Man readied another volley of repulsor blasts when he heard Hercules shout a battle cry.

"Metal one! Zeus has blessed me with this chance for retribution!"

Hercules plowed into the side of Ultron, tackling the robot around the waist. The clean, smooth metal hide of Ultron withstood his embrace, and the robot jabbed its elbows down into the small of Hercules' back, causing the mighty hero to stumble. Hercules released the robot and sent it flying into the base of the statue with a right haymaker that would have decapitated anyone else.

"**Help him!**" Mainframe said.

"Are you crazy?" Abe replied. "You want me to help the same guy that's trying to put my ass in a sling? Forget it!"

"**Ultron is worse, trust me. Ultron needs to be shut down, dismantled, and melted _now_.**"

As much as Abe wanted to disagree with the program, he couldn't. Ultron had taken down the Avengers several times, only to barely be defeated time and again. Now that the Avengers were gone, there was no unified force to actually stand up to the crazed robot.

Ultron was the creation of Henry Pym, a sentient machine turned evil. It wanted death and destruction of the human race, and it would settle for nothing less. Hercules seemed to be keeping his ground against it, trading blows back and forth with the robot, but that wasn't a solution. Abe had no idea why Ultron was here, but it didn't really matter. Not now that he had a responsibility as Iron Man.

With an irritated grunt, Iron Man plunged back down into the fray with both repulsors blasting. Without his targeting computer he was shooting practically blind, but most of his shots found their intended mark.

Hercules looked up and acknowledged Iron Man with a nod, choosing to hold back for another moment while he made his strafing approach. Abe hadn't thought about it before, but that made sense. Hercules was an Avenger and despite his obvious desire to engage in battle that rivaled any bloodlust, he knew that Ultron was a threat bigger than even his own ego. That small nod was Hercules' way of accepting help.

The repulsor blasts kept Ultron from advancing but they weren't doing any actual damage. Iron Man knew that this wasn't a real solution; he was only buying time to try and figure a way to put the robot down for good. One of the problems with an Ultron body was that it was usually composed of vibranium, or worse, adamantium. That made shutting him down fairly difficult.

Although given that Ultron was still mechanical…

Pink energy flared up inside Ultron's mouth and similar energy suddenly spilled out of his arms, engulfing Abe. His mind suddenly went blank and he lost his train of thought. He couldn't coordinate the armor's functions and he stopped his barrage of repulsors. He began to waver in his flight path, lowering a few feet in the air.

"Organics are weak in comparison to a perfect example such as Ultron," the robot stated. "When this conflict is over I will crack open your armor and pour the useless organic matter to the ground."

"You will not find _this_ one weak, inhuman monster!" Hercules called out.

The mighty god charged Ultron again, this time swinging with his mace. Already distracted from the assault on Iron Man, Ultron was unprepared for the swift strike that Hercules laid out, which in turn cut off the strange pink ray that was confusing Abe.

Once the pink beam shut off, Iron Man regained his composure and realized what had happened: he remembered that one of Ultron's chief weapons against the humans he despised so much was something called an Encephalo-Ray. He remembered Baron Zemo mentioned something about trying to reverse engineer it, since its ability to render human brain functions inert would be useful for his plans. However, he had never mastered the technology.

It was horrifying to feel the effects of the Encephalo-Ray in such a way. He had lost control of most of his faculties. Prolonged exposure could mean any number of things, including mind control. Ultron was more dangerous than he realized.

As he watched Hercules smash his mace into the plated armor of Ultron, he saw something amazing happen: a crack, just below the neck, in the plating. He remembered the last thought he had before being blasted with the pink ray, and dove to the ground to help Hercules.

"Herc!" he called out, but he wasn't sure if the brute heard him over the noise of the clanging metal.

Hercules raised back his mace once more, ready to strike, but Ultron delivered a fast punch that knocked the god up into the air. Unable to control his trajectory, Hercules was heading like a missile for one of the nearby news choppers. The helicopter wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time and would likely go up in a blazing fire ball once the hero smashed into it.

Abe punched his throttle and pushed his gyroscopes to their limits in order to get the angle right, but managed to get between Hercules and the chopper, catching the god with open arms. "Got you!" he yelled with an _oof_!

"My thanks," Hercules said as he wrapped a bulky arm around Iron Man's to help support his own weight. "It would seem you are noble, which you will enjoy knowing pleases Hercules."

"Uh, right. Listen, I think I figured something out. We might have a shot at taking that thing down."

"Then pray tell, Iron Man. The son of Zeus would like nothing more than to see that wretched fiend fall for good."

"I saw you managed to crack his armor. Think you can widen that up some more?"

"Aye, with ease."

And with that Hercules slipped his arm out from under Abe's and dropped back down to Liberty Island, breaking into a full run toward Ultron once he landed. His mace in hand again, Hercules began to dodge and weave within Ultron's reach, pounding away as he could. Now that he had a particular spot to aim at, the heroic god of legend seemed to have a fire ignited within him.

Iron Man checked his systems and made sure that he hadn't been too damaged to make his plan work. So far, so good. The one device he needed was still operating at peak capacity.

"Your efforts are futile!" Ultron hissed just before being struck for the fourth time by Hercules' mace.

"We'll see about that," Abe muttered. "Herc! Hold him!"

Hercules complied, swinging under Ultron's reach and locking him in a full-nelson hold. Abe could hear the metal straining as Hercules applied more pressure than was really needed. Iron Man landed in front of the pair, standing eye to eye with Ultron. He saw that the small crack below Ultron's neck had now been widened into a puncture, which would hopefully be wide enough for what he was about to do.

Cycling through the options on his HUD, which was still blinking passages of information at him, Abe selected the one weapon in his arsenal that had a shot at deactivating Ultron: an electromagnetic pulse.

He activated the EMP, which unleashed the energy in a single wave that encircled their position. It was close range, meaning it would only be effective up to a few yards. The pulse reacted to the electronic circuitry it came across, namely, Ultron's inner workings. Now that Ultron's plating was open, the EMP had a way inside his otherwise impregnable body. Ultron shuddered and then slumped down into Hercules' arms, the bubbling energy in his wide mouth slowly dying off.

"Amazing!" Hercules said happily as he let the defeated robot fall to the ground. "He fell easily against our combined might. Again, I am pleased!"

"Yeah, right." Iron Man stumbled when Hercules slapped him on the back, but he managed to not fall over. "I think we—"

"The day is ours!" Hercules shouted over him. "Hold thy tongue and let those we have saved glory in our..." Hercules stopped. "Nay, that way lies vanity, hubris is a dangerous thing, Iron Man."

Abe watched the ancient hero stare at a point in the distance and sensed waiting was the best option.

"I have done my duty. I tested thee and you did not want for courage or a stout heart. You accepted the gift with honor and should be proud. Our work here is finished. There are those that would ask us of today's events and we must answer. Come, my friend."

Abe wished he had that on tape to play back for Rhodes.

Hercules clasped Iron Man around the shoulders and walked him away from the now slag of metal that was Ultron. Abe wanted to push away, examine the body, but he supposed that could wait for the moment. One of the news helicopters touched down onto Liberty Island and Abe thought about how different an experience it would be to actually _want_ to be put in front of a news camera.

* * *

EPILOGUE

"Truly, thou have Heimdall's eyes to have so cleverly discovered the Achilles heel of our adversary!"

Hercules clapped Iron Man on the back again, this time holding back his brute strength. They stood back atop the Statue of Liberty, this time without the threat of combat. The media had since moved away and the Ultron body had been removed from the site, taken into the care of Code: Blue, the city's police superhuman task force. SHIELD would confiscate the body eventually, Abe was sure. But that didn't matter. He already had time to inspect it before it had been taken away, confirming his suspicions.

"When I saw that you had cracked it," Abe replied, "I figured it couldn't have been made of adamantium. You're strong, Herc, but I don't think you could have cracked adamantium so easily. No offense."

"None, taken. In truth it is not _easy_ for me to crack _mortal_ adamantium." Hercules waited for Iron Man to take the bait offered but Abe wasn't interested in placating the god's ego.

"Listen, Herc. I think there's more to what happened today than just a random attack. Ultron said he wanted to assimilate my tech. That means he was planning something and he showed up here with a purpose."

"Aye," Hercules said, nodding.

"And since his body wasn't made of a stronger metal, I'm beginning to wonder if that was even Ultron at all."

"I have bested that monstrosity before. It appeared to bear a striking resemblance to Ultron and even shared his desires."

"I think it was working _with_ Ultron, but I don't it _was_ Ultron. It might have been a drone. Or not. I don't know. I may never know."

Hercules folded his massive arms over his chest as he turned to stare off at the horizon, admiring its beauty against the backdrop of the city. "It would not be the first time that Ultron posed a threat on several fronts. Fear not; I will give this matter attention when the time comes. When that occurs, it would be my honor to have thee at my side again in battle. Until then, I have other things to be weary of."

"Such as?"

"There is another that, like yourself, has taken up the mantle of one of my former comrades in arms. The thunder god Thor was like a brother to me, and I have heard whisperings of his possible return. Dost thou know of this man that has raised up my fallen brother's hammer?"

Iron Man nodded. "I saw something on the news. I haven't run across him myself."

"The son of Zeus will ensure that our paths cross. I will present _him_ with the gift and see what kind of man would dare impersonate a god."

Iron Man checked his systems one last time and prepared to leave, grateful that the test put before him by Hercules was finally over with. If there was a new incarnation of Thor out there somewhere, he didn't envy him.

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE: **A person from Abe's past catches up with him, although he isn't entirely thrilled to see who it is. Plus, Justin Hammer sets into motion his most recent plans, and guess who's at the center of them? Probably not who you think… "Shell Game" begins next!


	11. Shell Game: Part One

"The power of an entire universe in the palm of my hand."

Abe Jenkins cupped the small cube in his right hand, bathing in its radiance. An entire galaxy of stars circled within the otherwise translucent cube and a nearly silent hum of power encapsulated him. This object was a very rare item that few men had ever held steadily in their grasp. Warlords had sought to control it, conquerors had been driven mad by it, and servants had been granted power by it.

How Justin Hammer had come into possession of a cosmic cube, Abe didn't know. What he did know was that Hammer had entrusted him with learning the cube's secrets. Building off the research of Ivan Kragoff, the traitorous Red Ghost, Abe was nearly ready to test several of his theories at once.

In one of the sublevels of Hammer Industries, the room formally occupied by the Red Ghost and his brazen simians, was now a retrofitted lab designed by Abe. Any piece of equipment he desired, no matter its rarity, was his for the asking. Having worked for Hammer before, he was sure of the methods used to acquire some of the treasures.

Holding the cosmic cube and loosing himself in its void, Abe found himself imagining what it would be like to take the power of the cube for himself. It hadn't been that long ago that he was known as the Beetle, a villain that had taken down the likes of the Avengers. It wouldn't be difficult for him to finish his project using Hammer's resources and then simply walk away, a god amongst men.

But that had been Kragoff's mistake. He had assumed that Hammer wasn't watching closely and that he was free to double-cross the ruthless businessman at his leisure. Abe's position in the company, at the behest of James Rhodes and Mainframe, was already a fraud. Every second longer that Hammer allowed him to breath was another second he was thankful for. Abe knew what Hammer did with turncoats and spies. He had no idea if Hammer was holding a wild card over him, but he wouldn't surprised.

Until Abe could discern just what information Hammer had stolen from Stark/Fujikawa, Inc., and what the billionaire's connection was to a project codenamed "rebel," he was stuck. There was also the question of the gauntlet that Abe had stumbled across on the twentieth floor two weeks ago while he was searching for Pepper Potts. The more he tried to established links the less sense it all made.

On one hand, Abe's new life as Iron Man had been a turning point. On the other hand, literally, was the power to change his life all over again.

Abe sighed and slipped the cosmic cube into a converter box he had finished building earlier that morning. With a little luck, he would be able to accurately measure how much power he could siphon directly from the cube without risking a meltdown of his equipment. Hammer had set deadlines for his research and he was determined to meet them.

Wishful thinking aside, he never thought he would see the day when he actually wanted to be in the warehouse with a jabbering artificial intelligence based on Tony Stark's brain patterns instead of where he was.

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #11 written by D. Golightly

"Shell Game – Part One of Three"

* * *

"Unacceptable!"

The accented English of the aged, bald man sitting behind Rhode's desk added a certain punch to the word. Kenjiro Fujikawa, Rumiko's father and current CEO of their company, had only arrived a few hours ago and already he was disgusted with what he had seen. After a brief tour of Stark Tower and a rundown of operations, Kenjiro had taken over Rhodes' office and continued to berate them.

"Father," Rumiko said humbly with a slight bow. "It is not my wish to upset you. Please, the cancer—"

"I am no weaker than I was in my youth," Kenjiro quickly said. "I was not satisfied by the reports you faxed me on my yacht, and I am not satisfied with the report you give me now. This company is falling apart under your care! And you, James Rhodes, have shown me no reason not to fire you immediately."

A few feet behind Rumiko was where Rhodes had chosen to stand. It was irritating enough that the old man's bodyguards had frisked him much longer than any other, a slight to Kenjiro's mistrust, but now he was being scolded in his own office. It was infuriating, but his temper was in check.

"Forgive me, Mr. Fujikawa," Rhodes replied, "but I'm not following what's happening here. The company has shown an increase in profits over the last year and the expansion project in Madripoor is already showing results beyond our projections. What's unacceptable here is your attitude."

"Insolence does not become you. The acquisition of Stark's company and the subsequent merger was intended to bolster our operations in Japan. It has not. I hold you and my daughter directly responsible for this failure."

"Failure?" Rumiko blurted out with astonishment. "Sitting halfway across the world does not give you the right to—"

With a wave of his hand Kenjiro silenced his daughter. The tension between them was thick enough for Rhodes to feel and he doubted there was anything he could say to alleviate it. A man like Kenjiro was stubborn, too stubborn to make any headway in a situation like this. He had already made up his mind about being angry and nothing Rhodes could say would change that.

However, if not for the promise he made to himself about securing Tony Stark's legacy through the company, Rhodes would have quit a long time ago. He had fought his way into the vice president seat and he wasn't going to let Kenjiro Fujikawa take that away from him.

An eternity of silence passed and Rumiko finally swallowed her rage and bowed to her father. She curtly left the office, and even though she walked like a woman in charge, Rhodes knew that Kenjiro had broken her. To save face Rumiko had maintained her air of authority, but it was only a mask.

After she left, Kenjiro set his stare on Rhodes once more. "I will be sending you to Madripoor as soon as I deem affairs here in order. You will finish the expansion project there immediately and then I will decide your fate with this company."

"I'm better suited here in New York," Rhodes said. "My connections are here, I'm intimate with the daily operations, the staff…everything."

"This branch may no longer be a viable option for Stark/Fujikawa."

Rhodes couldn't help himself; his mouth dropped open.

"Stark Tower is too much of a target," Kenjiro continued. "Both from the media and superpowered terrorists, not to mention SHIELD. This new Iron Man that my daughter has been unable to unmask is a loose cannon. The exposure for the company is becoming too big of a risk and loses may need to be cut. For now this is not your concern. The judgment rests solely on my shoulders. You are dismissed."

Sent away from his own office, Rhodes was too stunned to come up with a reply.

* * *

"How did this morning's tests go?" Justin Hammer inquired.

Abe slipped a plain manila folder across the billionaire's desk. "Very promising," he answered. "It seems that Kragoff was on the right track. Once I incorporated better interface algorithms it was just a matter of gauging how much power I could get out of the damn thing."

"And Kragoff's method of boosting that power will ensure that there is no limit put on the energy. Very good, Abner. This pleases me."

Abe's stomach nearly flopped over from the sheer acidity of Hammer's words. He sounded more like a lizard than a human being, a lizard that would eat its own family.

"It seems time to put our little toy to the test," Hammer said. "That will be all, Abner."

Abe cleared his throat. "Excuse me, sir. But since I've been such a big help with this project I'd say I earned a peak at what's going on."

"Is that right?" a new voice said from behind Abe.

Abe had been so focused on Hammer that he hadn't heard the door to the office open. A slender woman stepped in wearing a bright red blazer and matching skirt. Her dark hair was splashed across her shoulders like the wind had put it there on purpose; a trendy style that most Hollywood actresses paid thousands for.

"What's the matter, Abe?" she said. "Beetle got your tongue?"

The woman's name was Leila Davis, but Abe knew her better as Hardshell. The wife of former criminal Anthony Davis, known as The Ringer, Leila blamed Abe for Anthony's death. It was a twisted series of events that Abe couldn't exactly call his shining moment in life.

Since her husband's death Leila had wanted Abe's head on a platter. With her in Hammer's company, no matter the capacity, it did not spell out something beneficial to Abe.

"Leila," Abe said as he nodded.

"No heartfelt greetings and salutations? I'm hurt, Abe."

Leila stepped behind the large desk and wrapped an arm around Hammer's shoulders. She placed one hand on his lapel and the other on his head, moving her fingers through his thinning hair.

"Ms. Davis has taken up my offer as of yesterday," Hammer said. "I enticed her with your presence. I hope you don't mind, Abner."

And yet again, Abe's stomach flipped over. Hammer was not one to get his hands dirty directly. If he was getting ready to push Abe to the side he would have someone else do it. Abe expected that, of course, but he assumed that the hired thug Blacklash would be the one sent after him. He never dreamed that Hammer would actually go looking for someone with a grudge against him.

"Not at all," Abe said. Alarms were going off in his brain telling him to get out, but he couldn't. Not yet. "It's just a shame that her husband couldn't be hear to lend a hand."

Leila's spiteful expression turned to fury in an instant. She pulled away from Hammer and flashed her teeth at Abe like an animal that was about to hunt.

Hammer placed his hand on her shoulder, saying, "Leila, take Abner's report and input the data. Initiate the boot up sequence and prepare for the first phase. Have Blacklash at his mark immediately. No mistakes."

Leila scowled but did as she was told. She snatched the folder with Abe's collected data and stormed back out of the office. Abe watched her leave, making sure to never show his back to her.

"I wonder if that was wise, Abner," Hammer said after the door closed. "She obviously still holds you responsible for the death of her husband at the hands of Scourge. I would tread carefully if I were you."

"What the hell is she doing here?"

Hammer smiled. "You say you want a peak at what I'm up to? Very well."

After tapping a few keys on the desk, a screen popped up and displayed an image that looked vaguely familiar to Abe. Schematics for armor very similar to his own ran through the screen, although they had some very specific differentials from the armor that Abe wore as Iron Man. It were based on Stark technology but had very obviously been altered somehow.

"I don't understand," Abe said.

"I had some of my men reverse engineer this from a partial schematic I received recently. Originally I had only the design specifications for a sonic weapon, hidden here, in the right gauntlet. By piecing together what I know of Iron Man technology, I was able to have a full suit constructed."

The gauntlet that Abe remembered seeing matched what he saw now on the screen. Hammer had finally succeeded in creating his own knock-off Iron Man armor. "Amazing," Abe said sincerely.

"Apparently Rumiko Fujikawa was heading up a secret project known as 'rebel' that was along the same lines. I assume she called it that because of the purpose of the armor."

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean."

"Tony Stark, with his usual limited vision, only designed the Iron Man armor as a defensive measure. His beloved repulsor rays and various gadgets were rarely lethal. This design is the exact opposite."

"It's offensive? You mean it's meant specifically to kill."

"Precisely," Hammer said. "I heard rumors that the War Machine configuration that Stark made was fairly lethal, but nothing like this. The sonic disrupter alone could wipe out an entire building. And I plan on doing exactly that."

"What do you mean?"

"Leila is on her way to use your data to incorporate my cosmic cube into the armor. Once the cosmic cube is in place as a power source, I'll use the armor to destroy Stark Tower."

Abe faked a smile. "Can't kill Stark so you kill his people, huh? Not bad, Hammer."

"Oh, it's so much more than that, Abner. With luck, this will reveal all my enemies. Which reminds me, I want you to return to your lab and monitor the cube from there. You'll find your sensors have been adjusted. I would have told you…but, well, I doubted that I could trust you."

"And you can now?"

"That is why Ms. Davis is with us."

* * *

"Mainframe? Mainframe! Come online, you worthless—"

"**Yes, Abner, there is no need for name calling.**"

The floating head that was the digital representation of Mainframe, an artificial intelligence that was based on Tony Stark, appeared on the computer screen at Abe's main work desk in his lab. Modeled after the unique look of an Iron Man helmet, Mainframe had taken on many of the personality traits of the man he was based on.

Abe sighed once he saw the image. "Finally! Look, I need you to operate the monitoring equipment so it looks like I'm still in the lab. Hammer has his own armor and it's heading for Stark Tower. Find it's operating system; I'm sure Hammer has it jacked in. I have to armor up and get out of here."

"**Hacking the Hammer Industries neural network is simple enough. If I download a counter-virus to—**"

"No time. Just do it."

"**Abner, what I am telling you is that my resources will be taken up mostly to hide from detection and scour the neural network for this armor's operating system. I will not be able to help you as per usual if I do this.**"

"I'll risk it. Stark Tower is going to be turned to mush along with everyone inside unless I get moving."

Without waiting for a response, Abe exited the lab. He stormed down through the hallway, which was empty except for the cameras that Hammer was sure to have stationed around every corner. He wasn't worried about being seen, though. Mainframe's processor was fast enough to ensure that Hammer's cameras would see nothing but empty hallways.

Running up to the next floor, Abe slipped out of the side exit and made sure that no one was outside. He came out by the dumpster that he had smashed into not long ago in order to throw off suspicion of his being Iron Man. He had purposely broken his arm that day, an act he hoped he wouldn't have to duplicate in order to save his neck from Hammer.

He trotted down the alley and to the busy street to the back of Hammer's business. A loud noise came from overhead and he looked up to see twin streams of smoke trail out from the roof, at the forefront of which was a gleaming metal man. Hammer's armor, heading straight for Stark Tower in order to kill everyone there.

Abe crossed the busy street, barely making it through the traffic without getting hit. A cabbie blared his horn and extended the typical New York City greeting. Ignoring the gesture, Abe ducked into an alley and ran the length of it as fast as he could. He pressed a button on his watch and signaled a specially designed hatch to open that was disguised as another dumpster.

The sides swung open to reveal a gleaming set of red and gold armor with its back to him. He stepped into the now open and mostly hollow dumpster and tossed his sports coat on the ground. He carefully stepped into the armor, allowing its pieces to slide over him. Within a few moments he had become the reborn hero Iron Man.

Rhodes had originally suggested placing the armor nearby in case he needed to get to it while he worked for Hammer. It was risky, leaving it out in the open like this, but the fake dumpster had proven an effective hiding place. With a station charger inside the dumpster the armor was always at full power and ready to go.

Iron Man stepped back out of the shallow cage and looked skyward. After adjusting his gyroscopes to his position, Iron Man kicked off the ground and ignited his boot jets. The anti-gravity generator that Mainframe had "lost" within Stark/Fujikawa shipping manifests switched on and helped propel Iron Man into the air.

His HUD displayed a guiding trail where Hammer's armor had taken off. He extended his arms and followed it, heading straight toward Stark Tower.

"I better get a 'good job' for this one," Abe muttered from within the helmet.

A red and silver figure popped up in Iron Man's display. By augmenting the image in his visor, Iron Man zoomed in to get a closer look at the armor. It was very similar to something that Stark would have designed, but the center uni-beam lens was missing. A few stray wires hung off of the left shoulder and the boots looked like they had been slapped together by hand instead of by automation.

He charged his repulsors and took aim. Stark Tower was only a few blocks away. As his systems locked on to his target, the 'rebel armor' came up short in his flight and turned to face Iron Man. Shocked at the sudden detection, Iron Man duplicated the maneuver but kept his repulsors trained.

"So who did Hammer con into putting that tin suit on?" Iron Man said.

The pilot inside the armor did not respond. It simply floated in place, staring at Iron Man. The targeting computer did not waver within Iron Man's visor, but he held his attack back. He needed more information before he blew the thing up. So far he was stalling it from attacking innocent people at Stark Tower, which was the only goal he had thought of so far.

"If I had to guess, I'd—"

"Be wrong!"

The voice came from his left, as did the armored body that crashed into him, performing a tackle in midair. Iron Man went spinning head over heels with the new mystery person, although a quick elbow to the lower back of his opponent dislodged them.

Iron Man swung out and away from whoever had attacked him. The hovering rebel armor sat waiting and watching. Iron Man swung his gaze to see the red and black armored form of Hardshell charging the energy disrupters in her gauntlets.

"Oh, this is just perfect," he said as he dodged the oncoming attack.

"Hammer never misses a trick," Hardshell said over the barrage of fire she was laying down. "He said you'd show up and here you are. Hell, we didn't even make it halfway across the city before you showed up."

"I smelled the setup," Iron Man replied, "but I didn't expect stink like this."

Hardshell chased him below the oddly dormant rebel armor to only a few dozen yards above street level. Iron Man had become accustomed to the smooth descents of the armor, and he was sure that Hardshell would have no trouble following him. Leila Davis had spent a lot of time practicing for revenge and knew her armor as well as Abe knew his own. He wouldn't be able to out fly her.

He scraped by the edge of a building and rounded the turn. He flipped over and flew backwards, unleashing a volley of repulsor rays at Hardshell as she followed. One struck her in the shoulder but she dived out of the way of the others.

She returned fire but missed Iron Man with a few wide shots. Her attacks were random and unfocused, and he doubted that she was bothering to use her targeting systems. He had never known Leila to be especially patient enough to use a tool like that. She was much more upfront and her irrational behavior in battle had gotten the best of her before.

Iron Man rounded the other edge of the building, circling the structure. Hardshell followed, only this time she maintained her depth to his altitude. He couldn't fire downward like that without risking damage to bystanders. She had no problem about firing up at him, however. Bolt after bolt wildly flung by him, forcing him to climb.

When he reached the skyline he caught a glimpse of Blacklash's purple cape before the villain's signature whip wrapped around his ankle. Blacklash, who had been hiding in position on the rooftop, sent stabs of electricity down through the whip coil and into Iron Man.

Several alarms began to scream at him, pointing out that his navigation unit had just gone offline. He thanked a higher power that it wasn't something more dire and was glad that the insulation under the armor plating had just saved his life.

"How's it going, Iron Jerk," Blacklash said as he pulled out a second whip from behind his back. "Took me a second to get in place. Good thing you let Hardshell there push you around like that."

Iron Man struggled to wiggle his foot free, but it was no use. Blacklash threw the end of his other whip into the air and yanked down hard, slashing it across the front of Iron Man's body. The whip cut into his armor slightly, but still no serious damage was done. That didn't mean that a few more lashes wouldn't do the trick, though.

"This is going to hurt," Iron Man said.

He blasted his own foot with a repulsor ray and cried out from the pain. His ankle felt like it had just been sprained from the concussive force, but the whip dislodged and fell away.

White light enveloped him and then knocked him down onto the roof. Hardshell flew over his head, saying, "Thanks for the assist, Blacklash."

"If anyone is doing the assisting here, it's you," the caped villain shot back.

Smoke smoldered off of Iron Man as he picked himself up off the rooftop. Balcklash was swinging his whips rhythmically, ready to strike like a serpent. Hardshell hovered down behind him, her gauntlets charged and ready to fire. He weighed his options. They weren't good.

A piercing scream erupted from the rebel armor, which was still floating over the city. It quickly died away, but all three costumed supers were transfixed by it.

"Got him!" Hardshell said.

"Him?" Had Iron Man not been wearing a faceplate, the confusion would have been shown.

"Your little partner that's been hacking Hammer's network," Blacklash responded. "You didn't think this was all about you, did you?"

The rebel armor moved its arms in front of its face as if seeing them for the first time. Its head tilted to look over its body and then its gaze fell onto Iron Man.

"**What is happening?**" it said.

Abe recognized the voice. It belonged to the artificial intelligence that had been fundamental in his missions. Unless he was misreading the situation, things had just done from bad to insanely worse.

Mainframe had just been forced to download into the rebel armor, although for what reason Iron Man couldn't determine.

"What's happening is you just joined our side," Blacklash said. "Say bye-bye to your friend."

The rebel armor, housing the core consciousness of Mainframe, bucked again and screeched. As before, the piercing noise only lasted a second and then ceased, leaving a deafening silence.

"What did you do to him?" Iron Man demanded.

"Hammer just rewrote his programming, and guess what his primary function is?" Hardshell answered.

"**I am Daedalus**," the voice coming from the rebel armor said. "**Activating sonic disrupter. Targeting.**"

Another alarm flashed onto Iron Man's display, informing him that he had just been targeted by the rogue armor. If what Hammer had told him about that weapon was true, then not only would his insides be liquefied, but the entire top half of the building would be blown away.

Iron Man swore, and then the sky exploded.

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE**: How can Iron Man possible survive? We're not sure, so IRON MAN #12 might be the final issue!


	12. Shell Game: Part Two

A shrieking blast washed over Iron Man, disrupting his very ability to think. His vision blurred, and even though the armor he wore was state of the art, it could do nothing to protect him.

Abe rolled his eyes back open and saw Blacklash standing over him. He must have fallen to the rooftop under him. His ears were still ringing, so he couldn't make out what the villain was saying. Knowing Blacklash, it was probably something asinine.

Hovering behind Blacklash was the red and black armored form of Hardshell. Abe knew her better as Leila Davis, a woman that was determined to see him dead. She didn't know that he was the one posing as Iron Man at the moment, but he doubted that it mattered. She was nearly insane.

And in the air behind her was another armored figure. Mainframe. Daedelus. Whatever he wanted to be called, it was still the same engrams of Tony Stark inside that armor, pilfered by Justin Hammer, shoved into the 'rebel armor,' and turned against him.

The sonic disrupter in the gauntlet of Daedelus was still vibrating. He had heard Hammer say that it was powerful enough to destroy an entire city block. Having worked on ways to draw power straight from a cosmic cube to power the armor, Abe knew that Hammer wasn't bluffing. The sonic waves that the disrupter had hit him with had nearly killed him.

So…why was he alive?

He was losing power. His systems were barely able to register the internal damage. He saw a piece of his chestplate sitting on the roof in front of him. His armor was seriously damaged, possibly enough to leave him vulnerable.

"—can't say," he started to hear Blacklash say. The ringing was still blotting out most of his speech.

"Hammer said to pull the helmet off," Hardshell said. "He wants to know who this guy is before we kill him."

Blacklash's thick whip snapped in the air and wrangled itself around Iron Man's neck. With a tug, the villain forced Iron Man up onto his knees. A section of the armor covering his shoulder snapped away from the movement, showing just how damaged he was.

"No time like the present," Blacklash replied.

Hardshell landed in front of the positioned Iron Man, her hands reaching out to his helmet. He couldn't tell because of the facemask, but he was sure that she was smiling.

His power levels were still diving. His targeting computer couldn't even get a fix on her as she stepped just inches from his face.

And in the background, hovering silently, was the imprisoned electronic mind of his compatriot, who was possibly his only hope for survival.

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #12 written by D. Golightly

"Shell Game – Part Two of Three"

* * *

"Touch me again and I'll break your hand off."

Rumiko Fujikawa met the icy stare of the bodyguard without flinching. The muscles that the bodyguard had worked hard at acquiring didn't mean much when a person wasn't intimidated by them. He rubbed his hand where she had pinched the nerves after he had made the mistake of grabbing her shoulder.

"This is my father's boat," she said. "If I wish to enter his chambers, I will do so. I don't care if he said he wasn't to be disturbed. Now, remove yourself."

The guard hesitated, but gently bowed to her and stepped aside. She ignored his courtesy and pushed by him, entering the cabin and slamming the door shut behind her. Inside, the cabin was decorated with some of the finest Asian antiquities that collectors would only dream of seeing. Samurai swords, statues, art…it was worth millions. Possibly more.

At the center of the room was a large table, behind which sat her father. Already elderly, the cancer eating away at his insides did little to support any semblance of youth. The anger in his face, however, betrayed the old body and burned with a fire of a dozen young men.

"Daughter," he said harshly. "I have had enough outbursts for one day."

"Father. You _will_ listen to me. I am more than your daughter here. Here, I am an executive, a person of power. I might remind you that you placed me in that position."

"Yes, an obvious mistake."

The comment struck her like any slap in the face would. She bit back the disappointment and continued to say what she had intended to say. "I have implemented strategies that have proven successful. I have saved our interests in the United States several times. I have—"

"Forgotten where you came from!"

Rumiko stopped talking, but her mouth remained open.

"This venture was never meant to last, daughter. Your clouded judgment, especially where it concerns James Rhodes, has brought dishonor to this house. You have forgotten our plans in Japan, ignored my directives, and deliberately pursued other interests outside of what I assigned you."

"Father, using the company built by Tony Stark to simply save our own pride is foolish! That is why I have developed other projects, branched out from your original instruction, and made our family name honorable again!"

"It has already been decided. There is nothing more—"

Kenjiro began hacking and coughing profusely. Rumiko rushed to his side, helping to steady him in his chair. At first he raised his arm to keep her back, but the coughing forced him to lower it. He was too weak.

A few specks of blood splattered out onto the table. A tear formed in Rumiko's eye, but she held it back from falling. Pity was the last thing her father needed.

Someone knocked at the door. "We are fine," she called out. "Return to your post."

A metal boot kicked in the door, smashing the wood around the deadbolt. A figure draped in silver body armor and a black mask stepped into the room, wielding an assault rifle. Two more men wearing the exact same outfit were behind him with their weapons pointed over the first's shoulders.

"Who—" Rumiko began to say.

"This vessel is now under the control of Justin Hammer," the intruder stated. "We have orders to kill you if you resist. Please…just try and resist."

* * *

Iron Man had to admit, they had him dead to rights. The ugly sneer on Blacklash's face was something that Abe remembered hating when he was still the Beetle. Working with the psychopath had been part of the reason for his eventual reform. Unlike some of the villains he had known, Blacklash _liked_ the pain and suffering he dished out.

"Pry the damn thing off his face," Blacklash said. "I want to see the look in his eyes when I choke him."

The coils of the villain's whip tightened around Iron Man's throat. The metallic skin that buffered his own body and the armor plating resisted, but it was beginning to buckle. Hardshell gripped the sides of his helmet and yanked back hard in the opposite direction that Blacklash was pulling. The strain nearly made Abe pass out.

Iron Man quickly thumbed the controls inside his gauntlet, accessing the options on his HUD. He flew through several menus before selecting the correct one. His power was nearly drained, but he still had enough to do one more thing.

"Quit pulling his head like that," Hardshell said as she pulled on his helmet. "You'll snap his neck, and Hammer specifically said he wanted him—"

_FWAM!_

The uni-beam in the center of Iron Man's armor fizzled as the fully charged energy blast struck Hardshell at close range. She was catapulted back, flying head over heels off the roof. She fell below the edge and went out of sight.

Iron Man spun around on one knee, driving his fist into Blacklash's stomach. The caped villain doubled over and the whip around Iron Man's neck finally loosened. Iron Man followed his blow up with another, an uppercut into Blacklash's chin. The villain stumbled backward, possibly more from shock than anything else, and promptly passed out from the fast beating he had received.

Abe breathed heavily beneath his still sealed helmet. All of his power was almost gone and he was operating off of solar paneling. The strain of moving the armor without the full assistance of the servos was draining. He doubted that he could fly to safety.

"**Target is resisting.**"

Something struck the back of Iron Man and bowled him over. He sprawled out on the roof and looked up to see Hammer's hollow armor fly by, turn, and return for another approach. The sonic disrupter was charging again, almost ready to fire. Another strike from that device would surely kill him.

"Mainframe!" Iron Man called out. "Stop!"

"**This unit is designated Daedelus**," the armor replied. "**Primary function: capture Iron Man.**"

That explained why the first sonic attack hadn't killed him. Hammer wanted him alive. Abe had seen what Hammer did to his prisoners. Friend or not, there was no way he was going to let Mainframe…Daedelus…take him in. It was a death sentence, but only after a period of long and agonizing torture.

Straining against armor that didn't want to cooperate, Iron Man grasped Blacklash's fallen whip and snapped it at the approaching Daedelus. He pressed the button to electrify the coils as it wrapped around the enemy armor's gauntlet, sending thousands of volts directly into the armor and its systems.

Daedelus paused, hovering in air. It didn't react as if it were in pain, but rather as if it were contemplating what to do. With the amount of voltage that Abe was pumping into the thing, there was no way it wasn't taking damage. Finally, it raised its other hand and sliced through the whip, cutting off the stream of power.

Iron Man tossed the whip away and charged forward. Daedelus dropped to the roof and planted its feet to accept the charge. The pair of armors collided with a resounding noise, metal grinding on metal. Since the servos in Iron Man's armor were nearly dead, his strength was nowhere what it should be. He didn't stand a chance.

Daedelus easily pushed him to his knees. The corrupted artificial intelligence nearly broke his hands as it forced his wrists to bend backward. Between the flashes of pain, Iron Man heard boot jets approach from behind him.

"I'll never understand why Hammer is so obsessed with you," Hardshell said. It hadn't taken her long to recover from the uni-beam strike. "You're not even the real Iron Man."

The deadly female stepped behind Daedelus where Abe could see her. Her armor was scorched and most of the red plating had burned away. The black padding layer was still intact, but Abe doubted that she would survive another hit like the one he had given her.

"Of course, I'm pretty curious about who you are, too," she continued. "But in the long run it won't matter. Nothing you've done has mattered." She tapped Daedelus on the shoulder. "Restrain him and bring him to Hammer."

"**This unit does not acknowledge orders from you.**"

"Listen, you ignorant computer program! You obey Hammer and I'm acting on his authority! Now, fulfill your purpose!"

"**Secondary function**," the ghost in the machine said, "**eliminate unnecessary subordinates.**"

"Subordinates?"

Daedelus released one hand and backfisted Hardshell across the roof. She skidded to a halt by slamming against the stairwell entrance. Her arm twitched for a moment, but then hung limp.

"You're out of control," Iron Man said. "Hammer is insane. He doesn't even treat his own people with any decency."

"**This unit has served it's functions. Do not resist.**"

"I'm sorry to have to do this, Mainframe. I really didn't want to."

"**I am Daedelus.**"

"Yeah, and that's why this has to be done. _Initiate correctional protocol_."

For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then Daedelus' eyes flashed. It emitted a piercing screech and released Iron Man, grasping its head. The hollow armor stumbled back, nearly falling over several times, all the while never ceasing the ear-splitting screeching.

"I'm sorry, Mainframe," Iron Man said as he stood back up. "This was a last resort. A voice recognition backdoor program designed by Tony Stark himself. Just in case."

The screeching stopped. Daedelus froze in place and fell over on its side, motionless. Abe Jenkins had admired Tony Stark more and more since becoming Iron Man. He had learned just how smart the genius millionaire was before he died. Mainframe had been programmed to take over his role in life in the scenario of his death. It had taken careful planning and months of programming to ensure that the engrams of Tony Stark were perfect.

But the more that Abe learned about Stark, the more he realized just how paranoid the hero had been. There were contingency plans for virtually everything. Just in case. And since Stark knew that leaving a computer program in his stead also made it victim to his enemies' machinations, there had to be a way to destroy it in case someone like Hammer ever took it over.

At Abe's command, Mainframe, the virtual representation of Tony Stark, and the last semblance of his soul on this world, had just been completely erased.

Iron Man kicked the hollow armor, making sure that it was now truly immobile. He had hated initializing the protocol. Mainframe had saved his life several times, and even though it was just an artificial intelligence, there was nothing artificial about their budding friendship. He had effectively killed his ally.

Pulling on his chestplate, Abe ripped away several pieces of his armor. It was useless now. It had taken too much damage to do him any good. He dropped the helmet on the rooftop and leaned down over the inanimate 'rebel' armor. If it was similar enough to Tony Stark's designs…

He pushed a button located just below the helmet on the neckline. With a soft hiss, the helmet popped off and the pressure localized inside the suit. He pawed at the armor, dismantling it piece by piece.

He slipped the gauntlet with the sonic disrupter on to his hand. The secondary metallic skin inside conformed almost instantly to his body, surprising him. He could feel the silver skin move up his arm inside the gauntlet, and after a second, he saw it crawl up his forearm, too.

"Nanotechnology?" he wondered aloud. "And a cosmic cube supplying the power. Amazing."

Rhodes was still in danger, not to mention anyone else associated in this business. Maybe he could still salvage something from this horrible day if he played his cards right.

* * *

James Rhodes burst through the side door to the secret warehouse aside the Hudson. The microchip in his wristwatch allowed him security access without having to take the time to disarm all of their measures.

Abe had been out of contact since Mainframe had alerted Rhodes to what was going on. He had cleared up a few work projects at Stark Tower before leaving for the warehouse in order to not look suspicious. He looked around, but saw that the warehouse was empty and that the monitors that usually displayed Mainframe's floating head were now turned off.

"What the hell is going on?" he said.

He rushed to one of the consoles and tapped in the boot-up commands for Mainframe's systems, but nothing happened. The database was dead. He kicked one of the towers and swore, plopping down in one of the chairs in a sign of defeat.

"This day could not get any worse," he said.

"Are you sure about that?"

Rhodes spun in the chair to see Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan enter the warehouse through the same side door that he had used. He was shocked, wondering why the alarms had alerted him to their presence. He glanced at the monitor, seeing it powered down, and realized that the security measures, without Mainframe to operate them, were turned off.

"Pepper," Rhodes said. "Happy. What are you doing here?"

"Following you, chief," Happy said. "Pepper says you have a lot of explaining to do. She also says you know who Iron Man is. We've been through a lot, Rhodey. I think it's about time you start talking to us like friends again."

"Listen, Jim," Pepper added. "We know you've been involved from the beginning. I met this new Iron Man. He saved my life and I'm betting that he helped prove Happy's innocence. We owe him, just like you owe it to us to finally trust us."

"It's…more complicated than that," Rhodes responded. "This guy…well, in a way you could say that Tony picked him as his replacement. But I don't think you guys are going to like his choice."

"Tony picked his own replacement?" Happy said. Scratching his chin, he added, "Actually, that does sound a lot like Tony."

"Here's the thing: Tony didn't really pick him. A computer program with all of Tony's memories did. So, in a roundabout way, it's what Tony would want."

Pepper raised an eyebrow. "You want to maybe explain that a little more?"

_KRA-KOOM!_

The foundation of the warehouse shook. Pepper stumbled into Happy, who held her up. They all looked around, as if the source of the disturbance would show itself like magic. A low rumble, different in frequency from the first boom, started at one side of the warehouse and slowly crawled across to the other.

This constant noise grew in pitch until it was a shrill scream. One side of the warehouse buckled inward and finally crumbled, revealing the source of their discontent.

"Well, well," Screaming Mimi said. "Looks like a party."

The villainess, dressed in a black and gold costume, smiled deviously. She floated in the air in the center of the hole her psionic powers had created, absentmindedly stroking her long, flowing hair. Beneath her were dozens of arms soldiers, wearing silver body armor, and wielding assault rifles.

"My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail. That's okay, though." She snapped her fingers and the soldiers quickly filtered into the warehouse, surrounding Rhodes, Pepper, and Happy. "Just mark me down as a guest of Justin Hammer."

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** The stunning conclusion to this arc will surprise you! Everything that's happened so far has led to this point. Just how much does Justin Hammer know? And what is Abe going to do about that? Plus, don't forget that Rumiko and her daddy are in a bit of a pinch, too! Everything comes to a climax in the first IRON MAN ANNUAL, so don't miss it!


	13. ANNUAL 2009: Shell Game: Part Three

"I hope you realize, this isn't personal."

Screaming Mimi, in her gold and black costume, floated down to the warehouse floor. Mainframe, a digital representation of Tony Stark that activated after his death, had developed this secret location to continue the late hero's work. Up until now, it had remained hidden.*

* [Screaming Mimi blew out an entire wall in IRON MAN #12, making quite an interesting entrance to the supposed secret warehouse – D]

"Don't kid yourself, Mimi," Pepper Potts said coldly. "It doesn't get much more personal than this."

"I'm just a hired gun," the villainess replied. "With Justin Hammer footing the bill. Now…everyone on your knees."

Pepper shot Happy Hogan a quick glance. The former bodyguard looked like he was ready to jump one of the dozen armored guards that Mimi had brought with her upon busting into the warehouse. The look from Pepper spoke volumes, and Happy placed his hands reluctantly on the back of his head as she had done.

James Rhodes, however, took a step closer. "If you're working for Hammer," he said, "then you know that we've been keeping tabs on him. If you walk away now, we'll promise not to take you down with him."

Screaming Mimi just laughed. The carapace on her back hummed with the delight of her laughter, which forced a soft vibration to flood the warehouse. Her sonic powers, while under her complete control, were ready to explode out from the carapace and liquefy all of them.

"What's the promise of a dead man?" Mimi asked.

* * *

**IRON MAN**

**Annual 2009**

Written by D. Golightly

"Shell Game – Part Three of Three"

* * *

Metal clinked together as Abner Jenkins, former villain and current bearer of the Iron Man defensive armor, furiously worked to make two forms of technology amalgamate into one.

"Damn piece of crap," he muttered as he spliced cables together.

He glanced at the facemask of the rebel armor, removed from the torso of the enemy armor that Hammer had developed. His own helmet had been twisted and destroyed, and he even though he had no choice, he felt like a cannibal.

The other armor was now lifeless. It had housed only moments ago the core consciousness of Mainframe, only Hammer had twisted the programming of Abe's artificial friend into something else.* During their struggle, Abe had been forced into initiating a vocal command sequence that, in essence, erased Mainframe from the face of the Earth.

*[IRON MAN #11 – D, again]

And now he was picking at Mainframe's leftovers to get his own armor functional again.

He stood up, finished with his work for now. He couldn't waste too much more time. If Hammer had sent the rebel armor to destroy Stark Tower, that meant that people there will still in jeopardy. Hammer wasn't the kind of guy that only relied on one plan of action. He would have several back-ups going at once to ensure that he got what he wanted.

Abe knew because he had worked for Hammer on more than one occasion during his days as the Beetle. Those days were behind him now, and with the death of Mainframe, he was more determined than ever to bring Hammer down.

Behind him was the unconscious Blacklash. Abe also knew the villain from when he ran on that side of the blue line, and didn't feel any remorse for him. Blacklash was a killer, and worse, a man who enjoyed his work. He would wake up with one hell of a headache, but Abe had trouble feeling sorry for him.

In front of him, however, was someone he did feel pity for. Hardshell, otherwise known as Leila Davis, had been an obvious pawn in Hammer's plan. She was also knocked out and possibly trapped inside her armor. Hammer had betrayed her and commanded Mainframe, Daedelus, to sever their contract. Given their history together, Abe couldn't help but think that he was a little responsible for her being there.

He placed the rebel armor's helmet over his head, took in a deep breath, and switched on the power sequence. The HUD was slightly different from what he was used to. The information was similar to what normally scrolled across his screen, but there was less of it. Hammer had obviously rushed the project.

Flipping through the menus in the sequence, Abe saw the root uplink that Hammer had used to force Mainframe to download his core essence into the armor. Backtracking the connection, Abe began to sift through Hammer's own network.

Three things immediately jumped out at him. Abe had been correct in assuming that Hammer had put multiple plays of action out there. First, there was a yacht with Rumiko and her father on board that was being held hostage. Second, the warehouse where he and Rhodes operated out of had been stormed by none other than Screaming Mimi, a woman he had known quite well from his previous life.

And lastly, there was the empty lab in Hammer's subbasement that Abe was supposed to be in. Mainframe was rerouting Hammer's monitors while he was away so that Hammer wouldn't discover him missing. With Mainframe down…Hammer must know that Abe was up to something. His cover was effectively blown.

Or was it? Blacklash and Hardshell had discussed taking him back alive. They even tried to remove his helmet so that Hammer could know who the new Iron Man was.

He had a choice to make: the yacht or the warehouse. From what he saw through Hammer's network, the yacht had only been secured. Rumiko and her father, Kenjiro, were apparently only being held hostage. He was sure that Hammer had bigger plans for them, but for the time being they seemed to be safe.

The warehouse, on the other hand, held precious knowledge on top of the three hostages. Everything that he and Mainframe had worked on was accessible through that warehouse. Hammer had only gotten partial schematics for the Iron Man armor before and he had created a deadly weapon. Imagine what he would be able to do with all of the tech info available in the systems at the warehouse.

Abe activated the boot jets in the sole of his feet, pushed off of the roof, and headed north for the Hudson. He hated that he had to pick just one location, but this was an emergency and whether he liked it or not he was going to have to play triage.

Thanks to the cosmic cube empowering his cobbled armor, he had at least one advantage over the bad guys.

* * *

Kenjiro Fujikawa had been a feared man in Japan. His rivals knew his strength and had learned to honor his requests, whether it benefited them or not. His company had flourished, but due to several factors outside of his control, recent years had not been so kind to him in more ways than one.

He was a dying man. The cancer that riddled his body was now taking its toll. He coughed harshly and specks of blood flaked out onto his fist as he tried to supress the weakness. His daughter, Rumiko, was at his side even though he had done everything a father could to push her away.

"Deep breathes," she whispered to him. "Try not to get so agitated, father."

"Agitated?" he replied in an equally low volume. "We are being held at gunpoint on my own ship. How would you like me to act, daughter?"

Several men on board the yacht had their weapons leveled at the pair of Fujikawas. Their silver armor protected their bodies while their black masks protected their faces. They had remained silent since ordering them to remain still, as if they were waiting for orders.

Finally, one of them tilted his head to the side and raised his hand to where his ear would be behind the black mask. He waited, then nodded. He motioned to another guard to move forward with him as he flanked Rumiko.

"Stay away from us," Rumiko said coldly. There was a fire in her eyes that would have kept a lion at bay.

"Get up," the guard ordered as he grabbed Rumiko's elbow and picked her off the floor.

The other guard pulled out a small camcorder from a pack strapped to his lower back. He flicked open the screen and pointed the lens at Kenjiro.

"Say exactly what I tell you to say or we'll kill your daughter," the guard said.

"Ignore him, father. These lackeys are nothing more than dogs sent by a desperate man."

Kenjiro raised his hand to silence Rumiko. "What am I to say?" he asked.

"You're going to record a suicide note," the guard said. "Then you're going to slice open your abdomen with that sword on the wall behind you."

Rumiko was shocked into silence. She hadn't expected anything like this to happen. A few hours ago she had been arguing with her father in Rhodes' office at Stark Tower, and now she was here, listening to a random gunman order her father to kill himself.

"And why would I do such a ridiculous thing?" Kenjiro asked.

"If you don't I'll record my friend over there putting a bullet in your daughter's head. Then I'll make you watch it over and over until you beg me to kill you."

Rumiko's mind was racing. Why didn't Justin Hammer simply kill them? Why did he want her father to record a suicide message? What could he possibly hope to gain?

And then it struck her. A clause put into their filings when the merger of Stark/Fujikawa had gone public. Several rival companies had sought to break the merger, citing several reasons. Whatever they could dream up, they had argued. The hearings even made it all the way to Washington before the merger finally went through. One condition, however, had survived the hearings.

Kenjiro Fujikawa was the CEO of the company. In the event of his premature death the merger would be dissolved and the two separate companies would be fair game for another corporate to takeover.

Kenjiro's cancer wasn't publicly known, otherwise suits would have already been brought against them on behalf of the shareholders.

His suicide would also ensure that the company would be broken up, leaving a perfect opportunity for a man like Justin Hammer to swoop in and buy up the pieces.

"Father, no!" she screamed.

He silenced her again with his raised hand. He stared down the blank guard, watching him. "And if I refuse even then?" he said.

The guard showed him a small control box in his other hand. "I blow up the boat and go home without loosing sleep. The video would be much more effective, but a random act of death will serve just as well. It will take the courts longer to work everything out—"

"Providing more time for other investors to buy the company instead of Hammer," Kenjiro finished. "Is he willing to take that risk?"

The guard dangled the control box in front of Kenjiro. "What do you think?" the guard replied.

The elder Fujikawa closed his eyes and concentrated. He reflected on his life, his company, and his daughter. For a man once so feared, he now looked humble. A passing stranger on the street might have trouble distinguishing him from a poor fisherman.

"Very well," he said as he opened his eyes.

"No!" screamed Rumiko. She struggled against the grasp of the guard holding her, desperately trying to return to her father's side.

The guard angled the camcorder to center on Kenjiro. The cancer treatments had left the CEO of Stark/Fujikawa a broken man. His hair was gone. His eyes were sunken in. His lip quivered.

But somehow he had never looked more noble to Rumiko. It was for that very reason that she found the strength to break away from the guard and charge the other.

She tackled him and his surprise caused both of them to tumble over to the floor. The camcorder slipped across the planks and slammed against the wall. They struggled, and even though the guard was physically her better she kept him entangled.

Until the control box also slipped from his grasp, facedown, onto the floor.

The button in the center of the device, thanks to gravity, was pushed in.

* * *

"So, what are you waiting for?" Rhodes asked. "If you're going to kill us, just do it already. I hate all this waiting."

"Not until Hammer says," Mimi replied. She casually strolled around the three of them, glancing over the equipment. "Impressive little place you have here. Your computer friend put everything together nicely. We never would have found it if it wasn't for him."

Pepper shot Rhodes a quizzical look. She was in the dark about everything, as was Happy. All she knew was that she had seen the face of Iron Man and that Rhodes was connected to him somehow. Now Screaming Mimi was implying there was a third character involved in the Iron Man conspiracy.

Rhodes, of course, knew exactly what the villainess was talking about. Upon returning to the warehouse he had discovered Mainframe missing and the security shut down. "Where is he?" Rhodes demanded.

"Hmm? Oh, your artificial friend. He's—"

She paused. Screaming Mimi turned to face the far side of the warehouse, the end that she hadn't ruptured open with a concentrated sonic blast. She nodded to a pair of the silver armored guards and they rushed off in that direction.

"Problem?" Happy asked with a curt smile plastered on his face.

The villainess shot him a glance. Then all hell broke loose.

A massive explosion rocked the warehouse, knocking over Pepper. With her hands tied behind her back she wasn't able to do much more than an overturned turtle. Happy rushed to her side but his similar situation left him unable to do much either.

The guards all ran for cover, toting their rifles with them. Screaming Mimi issued commands for them to engage and then hopped into the air with a wail of her siren's scream.

Rhodes bumped Happy's shoulder with his own. "Follow me!" he shouted over the commotion, and led them behind a stack of crates.

The warehouse, for the most part, was storage. Only a small portion of it had been converted by Abe and Mainframe for use as a headquarters. The rest was a maze of storage units, crates, and shipping pallets. Given a few moments to lose themselves, Rhodes, Pepper, and Happy could become all but invisible.

"Over here," he said over his shoulder as he ducked beneath a stack of pallets.

He kneeled down and put his back to the pallets. One of the planks in the pallet had splintered and the nails connecting it to the rest of the wood were sticking out. Carefully, and after a few tries, painfully, Rhodes succeeded in slicing through his restraints. He helped Pepper and Happy out of theirs and then moved to the end of the row and slowly poked his head around the corner.

He motioned for Happy to join him. As Tony Stark's former personal bodyguard, Rhodes knew he could trust Happy to handle himself. He counted to three on his fingers and then leapt out on top of an armored guard.

Rhodes caught him off balance and he easily swung around behind him, pinning his elbows to his scapulas. Happy didn't miss a beat, landing a wind-taking punch to the guard's exposed throat. He fell limp in Rhodes arms and fell to the floor.

Picking up the rifle of the downed guard, Rhodes checked its ammo clip and nodded to Pepper for her to join them. "We move fast and we move now," he said. "The goal is the exit. Same way we came in."

An ear-shattering scream pierced their ears, causing them to hesitate for a brief moment. The three of them looked up just in time to see the roof begin to peal back, revealing Screaming Mimi swooping over the top of the warehouse in an aerial battle with what appeared to be a hodgepodge Iron Man.

"What about him?" Pepper asked.

"He'll take care of himself," Rhodes said. "Let's move."

* * *

Justin Hammer obviously hadn't designed his armor for a human pilot yet. The sound buffers typically incorporated into Tony Stark's design were absent, forcing Abe to endure the brushes of screeches that Screaming Mimi hollered at him.

The pair traded dives and ascents between the clouds over the warehouse. Iron Man, much more at home in the air, was able to avoid most of her shrieks, but the edges of the soundwaves were more than enough to disorient him.

Even though Mimi had gotten herself some type of metal carapace that allowed her greater control over her flight, she was still clumsy in the air. Iron Man cut off her trajectory and dove under her, making sure to face her at all times. He didn't think the back of his cobbled armor could take a direct hit from her painfully loud cries.

The roof of the warehouse as open, and Iron Man could see a few people scattering within. Mimi had brought back-up, but it looked like he would have to trust Rhodes to take care of them. He had proven his worth much more than Abe had as a hero, but the sooner he wrapped this up to come to his aid, the better.

Not that wrapping it up would be easy. He knew exactly just how much of a punch that Screaming Mimi, or Melissa, could hit him with. He knew because they had once been lovers.

Which was his primary reason for not hitting her back with everything he had. Not only was he hesitant to take down a woman he had once cared about, but he also wasn't sure what kind of power Hammer's components had at his disposal.

The energy levels were spiking up and down on his HUD. The cosmic cube housed behind his chestplate was more than enough to level a city block, and possibly more. The power was fluctuating, however. Abe's studies based on the Red Ghost's notes of the cosmic cube were only basic enough to understand the level of power he was dealing with. He wasn't sure exactly how to control it.

He had helped design the interface matrix that allowed the suit of armor to convert the cosmic cube into usable power. He should be able to manipulate the cube, but the spiking levels were making him uneasy. Plus, it was all theory. He hadn't actually worked with the equipment until he had stolen it.

He couldn't risk fighting back directly for fear of killing Screaming Mimi. He would have to reason with her, and since they had their share of fights like any couple years before, he had an idea of what was in store for him.

Iron Man turned on his side and circled around behind the villainess. "Melissa!" he called over the ruckus of her attacks. "Stand down! Let's talk about this?"

"Talk?" she replied after another warbling outcry. "Seriously? Now I know you aren't the real deal. The Iron Man I fought was invincible. You sound more like you're insecure. And you look like a recalled Japanese action figure."

"I know you're working for Hammer. I know how he works and it's a safe bet that he's got something on you. Am I right?"

Screaming Mimi dropped straight down so she was beneath Iron Man, looking up at him with dark intent in her eyes. "Hammer's got something on everyone in the city," she replied. "So what?"

"Melissa. You don't have to do this. I'm taking Hammer down. He won't be able to hold anything over you."

Screaming Mimi spun around and kicked out her legs, mentally commanding the carapace to carry her at an angle to be level with Iron Man. She laughed. "Yeah, right. Big hero, going to save the damsel in distress?"

"Melissa, you don't underst—AH!"

Pink soundwaves blasted his side, sending him reeling head over heals through the air. He had allowed himself to be distracted by the conversation, not realizing that she was moving into a better position to strike from. Because of her angle the blast was pointed in the same direction he was already moving, making it more difficult for him to avoid.

He recovered quickly, using the gyroscopes in his original boots to right himself. He accepted so that he was moving counter-clockwise to her clockwise movements, ensuring that another strike like that wouldn't happen again.

She pulled in a sharp breath and readied another sonic blast. Iron Man reacted by activating the sonic weapon that Hammer had stolen from the original 'rebel' project that Rumiko Fujikawa had been working on. It was a long shot, but he wasn't in a position to second guess statistics.

He fired the weapon, mounted on the top of his gauntlet. The nearly invisible soundwaves smashed against the pink screeches of Screaming Mimi. The resounding low thrum of energy shoved both of them apart as the sonics collided and pushed off one another.

Sound scraped against sound, resulting in a pitch that was several octaves lower than the human ear could perceive. The warehouse under them shook and the nearby Hudson river rippled. Car alarms for miles around went off from the interference.

A moment of deafness and then a soft ringing in their ears told them that they were still alive. After they reoriented themselves they faced off again, each breathing deeply from the sonic onslaught.

"Stay still!" she screamed.

"Melissa! I can help you! Just listen to me for a second!"

"What the hell would you know about it, huh?" she demanded. "And quit using my name like you know me! Aren't you pretending to be a hero? What could a hero possibly know about having the screws put to them by an arrogant son of a bitch like Justin Hammer?"

Iron Man continued moving parallel to her for another heartbeat. He was going to have to risk something in order to get her to see sense. Hell, he was going to flat out risk _everything_.

He hovered in midair directly in front of her. Slowly, giving her no reason for alarm, he reached his gauntlets up and severed the connection with his helmet. He pulled it off, leaving his blank face to stare at her.

She squinted, as if confused.

"I'm not pretending to be a hero," Abe said. "I am one."

"What the hell is going on?" she demanded. "Abner? Abe? Is that you? Why the hell are you dressed like…like…"

"Melissa—"

"Wait a second. Are you with Zemo?"

Abe blinked. "What?"

"Zemo. Did he get you to do this? His plan for something about Thunderbolts. Pretending to be the good guys so we could get the public's trust."

The instance Abe had first come across Mainframe instantly popped into Abe's head. He had been approached by Baron Zemo and asked to participate in a plan where the Masters of Evil would hide themselves in plain sight. They would remake themselves as heroes, and in a world that had just lost its greatest heroes they were sure to be welcomed with open arms.

But Mainframe had interrupted the meeting, controlling the Iron Man armor, before Zemo could convince Abe about the plan. Abe had been on the fence about the plan until Mainframe had busted in, scared off Zemo, and talked Abe into joining him.* Had Melissa been approached by Zemo, too?

* [This was all explained in IRON MAN #3…but you read that already, right? – D]

"No," Abe replied, shaking his head. "No, I'm not with Zemo. I'm gone legit. For real this time. You can come with me. Maybe we could pick up where we left off in Vienna."

She threw her head back in a brief fit of laughter. "Vienna? You mean the stakeout job for Boomerang? That was business."

"All of it? I seem to remember a hot tub."

She stopped laughing, although the smile remained on her face. "Okay, maybe it wasn't _all_ business. Still—"

"Melissa, you can reinvent yourself. I did. Of course, I had a little help." He nodded toward the warehouse below. "And I can give you the same kind of help. I know you, I know what you're capable of, and it's more than just running errands for slime like Justin Hammer."

An angry look came over Screaming Mimi's face. "You think I haven't tried?" she said. "I have. People like me…we don't just turn over a new leaf. You're not Dr. Phil. I would never be accepted. I'm one of the Masters of Evil, just like you were."

"Then why didn't you take Zemo up on his offer?"

"I was…I had another job," she blurted out. "Plus Zemo hasn't always worked with my best interests at heart."

"Is that the real reason?"

Melissa avoided his gaze, looking through the patch of clouds to the side. "Maybe. Maybe not. It's just…I was counting on you to join up with him."

"Me?"

"Yeah. It's stupid, I know. But when you turned him down I didn't see any real reason to join up with him again."

"I thought it was just…_business_," Abe said as he drifted closer.

"Maybe." She finally met his stare. "Maybe not."

"You haven't actually hurt anyone here," Abe said. "We can round up the goons that Hammer sent with you, get the police involved, and make sure you're able to start over again without any trouble."

Melissa rubbed her elbows as if a sudden chill had come over her. She looked around again, avoiding his stare once more. She looked like a little lost girl that desperately wanted to simply go home. At that moment Abe saw the woman from Vienna again, the one that had let her guard down.

She sighed. "I can't just get involved with the police," she said. "Not with what Hammer has on me. I'll leave, but you're on your own."

"Melissa—"

"It's okay, Abe. If you can do this, I can do this. Just do me one favor."

He raised an eyebrow in question to her comment.

"Knock that jerk on his ass when you take him down."

With a somber look on her face, the woman Abe had known as Screaming Mimi turned away from him and flew out over the Hudson. The pink wings extending from her carapace carried her away and soon she was soaring above the clouds and out of sight.

Maybe he wouldn't be calling her Screaming Mimi anymore.

Abe let out a breath he wasn't aware he had been holding in. Since becoming Iron Man he had learned all sorts of things. Not once would he have assumed that he could talk his way out of a fight.

Looking back down at the warehouse, Abe lowered himself slowly through the hole that Melissa had blown open. He powered up his sonic emitter but saw that there was no need.

Standing in the center of the warehouse was James Rhodes, wielding a rifle like he knew how to use it. Pepper Potts, a woman he had rescued not long ago, stood behind him with Happy Hogan. Each also bore a rifle, although it looked too large for Pepper's hands.

In a pile on the floor at Rhodes' feet were the armored soldiers that Hammer had sent with Melissa as backup. None of them were moving.

"Evening," Rhodes said as Abe touched down on the warehouse floor.

"You really wanted to be a movie action hero when you were a kid, didn't you," Abe commented as he looked at the signs of the firefight. "God. Everything here is wasted."

Pepper placed her hand on Rhodes' shoulder. "Jim," she said. "Just who the hell is this guy?"

"Nice to see you again, Pep," Abe said with a nod.

"You don't recognize him?" Rhodes asked.

_Ka-click!_

The chambering of a bullet solicited total silence in the warehouse. "I sure as hell do," Happy replied. He pointed his weapon at Abe's exposed head. "That's the freakin' Beetle. Pepper, stand behind me."

"Happy, wait," Pepper urged. "I saw his face. This is the same man that saved me. We can trust him."

"Ha! Yeah, right. You know how many times I saw Tony tangle with this guy? Too many for me to remember. He's a bad guy, Jim! For crying out loud! Is this the nutcase you've been working with all this time?"

"Stand down, Hogan!" Rhodes ordered. He stepped between Abe and Happy. "I trust this man with my life. And so does Tony."

"Tony's dead."

"But his replacement, Mainframe, picked him. He trusts him. That means Tony would have trusted him. That means I trust him."

"Mainframe? You mean the computer simulation? C'mon, Rhodey!"

Pepper forced Happy to lower the rifle by moving her arm over top of his. "Happy," she said softly. "It's okay. This man saved my life. No matter who he is, we owe it to him to not wave a gun in his face."

Reluctantly, he lowered his weapon. Abe remained quiet, not wishing to provoke him any further. The old Abner Jenkins would have smashed the guy's face in for shoving a gun barrel under his nose. Now…now things were different.

"When I got here the computers were down," Rhodes said. "Any idea what happened? Where's Mainframe?"

Abe opened his mouth but no words came out. He didn't know how to tell them that the last engrams of Tony Stark's mind were now gone forever. The one piece of a hero's had been wiped clean.

"Abe?" Rhodes said. "You okay? What happened up there with Screaming Mimi?"

"She's gone," he finally said. "She won't be a problem. But…Mainframe…he's gone, too. I'm sorry, Rhodes."

"What do you mean?"

"His core personality. It's been wiped."

And the blockage that stopped Abe's speech before was completely removed. He blurted out everything that had happened since leaving Hammer's building earlier that day. The fight with Hardshell and Blacklash. The encounter with Mainframe being forced into the rebel armor. His corruption into Daedelus. His subsequent deletion.

When he finished talking Rhodes only looked at the floor.

"My God," Pepper murmured. "That's horrible. I can't believe…I just never thought Hammer would be able to do things like this. He was always a threat to Tony, but never on this level. He never openly tried to kill someone before with so many witnesses."

"Just means he was sure he would win," Happy added. "The fact that he didn't is really going to piss him off."

"I'll be taking him down soon, don't worry," Abe said.

"Yeah, but we got no proof that he did anything," Rhodes said. "It's all finger-pointing. His lawyers will say we're lying and then they'll sue us all for slander."

"Actually," Abe said as he slipped his helmet back on. "I've got an idea. Mainframe was just like Tony, right? Well, from what you told me Tony Stark always had a backup plan, just in case. If I'm right, Hammer will never see the light of day again."

* * *

The large, backlit window that encompassed almost the entire rear wall of Justin Hammer's personal office was so clean one would almost swear it had been removed. To stand in front of it one might be overcome by vertigo, as it would appear that the looming city twenty floors below was only inches away from being a final resting place.

Justin Hammer stood at the window behind his desk, enjoying the sight of his reflection overlaid on the background of the city. New York was his for the taking. His operations, while privy to a bit of interpretation, had accomplished at least some of his goals.

Before long he could initiate a hostel takeover of Stark/Fujikawa, and once he bought out all the stockholders, he would retain the largest privately owned corporation in the world. Merged with his own company, he would have the economic pull of a god.

The smile on his face was wiped away once his reflection was replaced with the armored visage of Iron Man.

"Knock, knock," Iron Man said from the other side of the thick glass.

"What do you want?" Hammer asked. "From the burn marks on you I'd wager a guess that you've been having some fun with my employees."

"It's over, Hammer. You're going to be arrested."

"Oh, that's almost as rich as me. If I knew what you were talking about, and I'm not saying I do, then you'd have to have evidence or a witness that connects me to involvement of whatever you're accusing me of."

"Several counts of attempted murder," Iron Man said, "industrial espionage, insider trading, harboring a fugitive…I could go on, but I think you get the point. You won't even see a courtroom to appeal for a long time."

"Preposterous. Whoever you are under that helmet, which is mine I might add, you obviously don't know who you're dealing with. I'm what they call an untouchable. I've been the backbone of this city, exerting control where I see fit. One call from me and I can have a dozen more like Hardshell and Blacklash come at you from all sides."

"I don't doubt that," Iron Man replied. "But those little things you mentioned before? Evidence and a witness? I've got both."

Hammer remained silent, and unless the glass had suddenly become less clean than a moment ago, Iron Man swore he saw a small bead of sweat appear just above Hammer's eyebrow.

"Pepper Potts will testify to your involvement in her kidnapping," Iron Man continued. "I released her from inside your building. I'd love to see you explain your way out of that. And I will, on Court TV. I've also already made sure that the schematics you stole from Stark/Fujikawa will be linked to your networks and found by SHIELD."

"My networks are secure," Hammer said. "You'll never get a subpoena for the data."

"Don't need it. Not when I have Mainframe's backup files. You remember Mainframe, right? The artificial intelligence you corrupted and forced to download into your stolen armor? Before you infected him, he ensured that there would be a way to take you down."

"You have everything figured out, don't you, you insignificant worm."

"SHIELD will be here in the next few minutes. I'm sure they'll find a lot more evidence once they gain access to the Red Ghost's lab, who had a warrant out for his arrest, by the way. Like I said, it's over."

Hammer stepped closer to the window so his face was barely an inch away. "I _will_ learn your identity. And I _will_ kill you. I have the best lawyers on the planet on retainer. I'll be out on bail and hunting you down with all my power. You won't be able to hide, and when I learn who you really are, I'll kill your loved ones, too. Their blood will be on your hands, all because you had the gall to impersonate my most hated rival, and then dance arrogantly in front of me."

"There's only one thing I haven't pieced together," Iron Man said, ignoring his remarks as if he were a child. "The cosmic cube. Where did it come from?"

Hammer laughed. "You think because you'll have me detained for a few days that I'll now tell you everything? There's more to all this than you realize. The cosmic cube was given to me so that I could crush you with it. I'm not the only one who wants you dead."

"I've been threatened before. Still here."

"Yes, but are all your friends?"

Iron Man hesitated a moment before responding. "We survived your attack on the warehouse."

"Obviously, but I'm referring to Rumiko Fujikawa and her father. Tell me, were you able to be in two places at once?"

The yacht. He had completely forgotten about it with all of the excitement at the warehouse. Rumiko and Kenjiro had been held hostage from what he saw on the network before going to the warehouse. He had assumed that Hammer was going to use them as leverage against him or Rhodes.

He was dumbfounded. How could he have been so ignorant? Hammer had done something to Rumiko and her father. Something horrible.

"What did you do?" Iron Man demanded.

"It seems there was an accident on board Mr. Fujikawa's vessel. They're dead."

Iron Man's fist slammed into the glass, sending cracks out in a radius around Hammer's face. The CEO didn't flinch. Iron Man pulled his fist back for another hit, but paused. "Where are they?" he demanded.

"At the bottom of the drink, I would assume." Hammer turned to go sit back at his desk. "If you would excuse me, I have things to shred before SHIELD arrives. If you hurry, maybe you can find their corpses before they're picked clean by sea life."

Furious, Iron Man adjusted his gyroscopes and blasted away at full burn toward the last location of Kenjiro's yacht.

* * *

_**ONE WEEK LATER**_

Rhodes pulled the lapels of his coat up around his neck. There had always been a breeze on the roof of Stark Tower, but it seemed colder now. Like there was less warmth in the city to go around.

He watched as Iron Man, still in his mangled armor, touched down on the roof a dozen feet away from him. He nodded and stepped closer, saying, "You're late."

Iron Man pulled off his helmet. "I was pulling the last of the wreckage up," Abe said. "I think SHIELD appreciated the help. Thor is off somewhere and their equipment wasn't able to lift he entire yacht."

"The bodies?"

Abe looked away. "Recovered. No survivors."

A silence passed between them. They had barely conversed since Hammer's arrest the subsequent week. Rhodes had been busy trying to secure portions of the company while Iron Man was giving daily aid to the recovery efforts.

They had never performed operations smoothly together, but they had come to develop a certain amount of respect for each other. The last six months had been some of the most difficult for them. They had grown in a similar direction, but not necessarily together.

Finally, Rhodes broke the quiet tension. "I'm headed to Madripoor," he said. "It's my only shot at saving the company. With Kenjiro's death other companies are citing contract law to break us up. Kenjiro put some projects into effect in Madripoor that might be able to pull us out of this mess. I've done all I can from here."

"Is Stark/Fujikawa going to be dissolved?" Abe asked.

"With Mainframe wiped clean, this company is the only piece of Tony Stark's soul left on Earth. I'll be damned before I let it fall apart. I'm not giving up."

"I'm not either, although the warehouse is completely compromised," Abe said. "I haven't been back there except to move all of the equipment to a secure location. I can't…I _won't_ give up being Iron Man. I've come too far."

"I won't be able to help you for awhile," Rhodes said. "I need to focus on the company. With Rumiko gone…" He trailed off, unable to finish his train of thought. He had avoided thinking about Rumiko. It was on this very rooftop that they had first opened up to each other, if only a little.

"I know," Abe said. "It's what I expected you to say. Don't worry. I've got some new designs in mind for the next generation of Iron Man armor. You get the company back and I'll make sure that Tony Stark's legacy as a hero doesn't fade away."

Everything was changing, and they both knew it. Tony, Rumiko, Kenjiro, Mainframe…all gone. The company was being attacked from all sides by would-be usurpers. Justin Hammer was sure to come back. Whoever had created the cosmic cube that powered the armor Abe wore would probably come looking for him soon enough.

Everything was changing, but they weren't ready to give up the game just yet.

* * *

**-AUTHOR'S NOTES-**

Just about everything that's developed in this series over the past twelve issues has been resolved. I'm thinking of those twelve issues as sort of the first season of Iron Man. Next season…oh, you just wait and see.

While the first season was basically Abner Jenkins struggling to fill Tony Stark's metal boots, the next season will really show him owning up to the Iron Man name while making it his own. That's the main reason behind removing most of the Tony Stark supporting cast. Rhodes, Happy, Pepper, Rumiko, Kenjiro, and Mainframe were all directly related to Tony Stark's history. Next we'll be seeing characters that are closer to Abe's own history.

Here are some hints at what you'll be seeing soon in the series: past lovers, old enemies, disgruntled friends, ten rings, and young heroes. Curious? Me, too. I'll have fun exploring what is to come.

Of course, if you want a _really_ big hint as to what's to come next, just keep reading…

* * *

_**EPILOGUE**_

In space there is no sound.

Not a whisper rippled through the cosmos when a powerful force ripped open a tear between realities. The scar in the fabric of space would only be open for a handful of moments, but it was more than long enough for a golden ship to pass through.

The hull of the enormous spacecraft was gold with red highlights streaked along the length. Hundreds of viewports offered a glimpse inside, showing machinery developed by countless worlds. Most of it was unlike anything the people of Earth had seen before.

In the command center, a half dozen figures worked furiously at their stations. All of them were encased in various forms of armor. Some red and white, others solid black. No two armor designs were exactly the same, even though they had all been designed by the same man.

No, not the same man. A version of the same man.

Earth proudly displayed itself on their view screen. The blue and white ball rotated slowly, almost too slow for the naked eye to notice. An armored figure closest to the screen turned to face the others.

"This one isn't blown up by world war yet," he said. "How should we approach them?"

"We'll have to be subtle, of course," the one near the center of the room said.

"Of course," another added. "We'll make contact with someone we can trust before going public. I think we all remember what happened on Earth 413. We don't need to repeat that."

The one closest to the screen sat at a terminal and began typing commands into the solid light keyboard. "Downloading relevant information on Tony Stark," he said. The ship's computer bounced a signal off the closest satellite and effortlessly hacked into the Pentagon database. After a moment he tilted his head in curiosity. "Very interesting."

"What is it?" another armored figure said as he approached.

"Apparently," the first replied, "Tony Stark died during an altercation with a being known as Onslaught. There is an Iron Man, however. His identity is unknown, although you should see the case file SHIELD is building on him."

The armored figure in the center of the room removed his helmet to reveal dark hair, blue eyes, and a mustache. His features were worn, as if he had been through several wars. "Well, then," he said. "If they've lost their Tony Stark then I guess it's time they got a replacement."

He looked at his helmet, seeing his reflection on the shiny metal. It was a face the entire crew knew very well.

It was the face of Tony Stark.

**THE **_**NEW IRON AGE**_** IS COMING!**


	14. The New Iron Age: Part One

"Sir," the stuffy woman in the Armani pants suit said. "Are you sure you can afford this?"

Abner Jenkins walked out onto the wide open patio of the penthouse apartment. He breathed in the fresh air and looked over the edge of the building. Thirty floors was a long way down. It was a good thing he had conquered his fear of heights a long time ago.

"Would I be here if I couldn't?" he replied, not bothering to look back at her.

"No, of course not, sir. It's just…you asked me to find you a high-rise location, but not in this part of town. I just assumed that you'd like to start looking here to get an idea of what the other properties would look like."

"Is this penthouse not for sale?"

"It is, but I just thought—"

"How much?" Abe was studying the landscape carefully, deciding how to best go about getting through town in his own unique way.

"A little over four million."

Abe looked over his shoulder at her and raised an eyebrow. "Well," he said. "This is New York, after all. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised. It's probably cheap, considering the location. Times Square is only a dozen blocks from here."

"And the size brings the price down," the realtor commented. "Only two bedrooms and one bath. As you can see the patio more than makes up for it. Will it be just you here?"

"Yep. Just me. Listen, why don't you go get the right people on the phone and make this happen. I'd like to take a closer look around while you go get the paperwork in order. That okay?"

"Absolutely, Mr. Simmons."

The realtor went back to the private elevator and left the penthouse suite, leaving Abe by himself to wander through his purchase. It would take some time until it was his, of course, what with closing costs and all. The recent economic downfall was largely attributed to the crash of the housing market, which resulted in more red tape when purchasing property.

In thirty days the penthouse would officially be his and he would be free to make all the necessary upgrades. It might seem small but by New York City standards it was luxurious. Once he was done modifying the spare bedroom into his workshop he would be able to continue operating as his armored alter ego.

Given his criminal history, there was no way he was going to get a large bank loan approved under the name Abner Jenkins. That's why he had squeezed an old friend, a loan provider with one of the bigger companies in the city, into approving him under one of his old aliases.

He may be a reformed criminal, but the rest of the world didn't need to know that. Especially since he was also Iron Man.

Keeping up with the mortgage wouldn't be a problem, either. Not after Mainframe had pulled through for him by sticking it to Justin Hammer one final time.

Apparently the artificial intelligence based off of the late Tony Stark's engrams had seen fit to relieve Hammer of his illegal offshore accounts before being wiped. Thanks to Mainframe, Abner was now a rich man. Half of the money was moved to a cancer research clinic, a fourth to a Stark/Fujikawa subsidiary company, and the other fourth to Abner's own offshore account.

He imagined that Hammer's face had a constant look of irritation plastered on it. Not only was he behind bars, but he was only half as filthy rich as he had been before. On top of that there was no way he could claim the theft, since the funds were unknown to the IRS in the first place, given that they were accrued through his various criminal activities.

Abe doubted that Hammer would be in prison much longer, since his a-list team of lawyers were working around the clock to get him out on bail. When he was released, he was bound to come after him. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

Looking around the penthouse, Abe realized that he was on his own again. Mainframe was gone. James Rhodes was halfway around the world. Plus, he was going to need to make some more changes to the armor if he was planning on flying in and out of here.

"Maybe it's time Iron Man made some more connections," he muttered aloud.

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #13 written by D. Golightly

"The New Iron Age – Part One of Five"

* * *

"I'm sorry, sir, it seems we have a bad connection."

Rhodes switched off his webcam and shut his laptop with more than a bit of effort. He hated working like this, and he especially hated it when people called him 'sir.' But this was how it had to be for now.

With the potential dissolve of Stark/Fujikawa already underway, James Rhodes had to do whatever was necessary to keep Tony Stark's company from being shut down for good. Because of contract law forced by the government when Kenjiro Fujikawa purchased Stark Enterprises the company was in serious trouble.

Kenjiro was dead, and his untimely death was also a legal loophole for other companies to begin hostile takeovers. Before his death Kenjiro had put into motion several projects that might provide enough revenue for the company to buy out its own shareholders, once more making it a private company.

Unfortunately for Rhodes, those projects were being operated out of Madripoor.

Madripoor was located off of Southeast Asia. It was widely regarded as a slum country, housing criminals of all calibers because of their lack of extradition treaties with any other country. For that reason it was also cheap to operate a company out of.

Madripoor also suffered from unsecured connections, making it often difficult for him to do live web conferences with the New York office. Kenjiro hadn't finished construction of the Madripoor office yet, which was quickly becoming a thorn in Rhodes' side.

Stark Tower in New York was still maintaining basic operations, but Rhodes had to personally oversee the projects in Madripoor. They were the only shot at saving what was left of Tony Stark's legacy. He would have preferred to be back in New York, especially since that was where Abe was.

He admitted that Abe had come a long way since donning the armor. While he might not tell the ex-con that in person, he assumed that it wasn't necessary to say it out loud. Abe had done a lot to get out from under Tony Stark's long shadow, and even though Rhodes wished he was still tapped into Abe's ear piece, he knew that the man was capable of continuing on his own.

Rhodes opened his laptop, sighed, and reestablished the webcam connection. He wondered how long it would take him to get out of Tony's shadow himself.

* * *

Iron Man soared over New York City. In broad daylight, the constant flow of foot traffic would have delayed him for hours if he had decided to commute like everyone else. Instead, the open skies allowed him a clear shot to his destination. After a quick detour for some equipment testing.

"Alrighty," he said. "Let's give this a whirl."

Pulling back the throttle on his boot jets, Iron Man looped back over in a somersault and pointed his trajectory straight up. He let the anti-gravity engine take over, catapulting him up into the upper atmosphere. The gyroscopes kept him on target, ensuring that he didn't waver in his flight.

Reaching the ionosphere, Iron Man relaxed the jet burn toned down the anti-grav engine. His momentum in the thinner atmosphere would be more than enough to get him to the height he was trying to reach.

Swapping through various options in his heads-up-display, Iron Man switched on his personal force field to add more resistance to the vacuum of space. A peculiar icing problem would also stop his ascent if he didn't use the second-skin force field to provide insulation.

"That should be high enough," he said as he switched off his boot jets and floated on the fringes of Earth's atmosphere.

Iron Man diverted resources from most of his armor's systems to the uni-beam projector mounted on his chest. His HUD told him when the charge was ready, and making sure that his long range sensors told him the way was clear, he fired.

The uni-beam sliced through open space. The readings were off the scale, marking this as the most powerful blast he had yet been able to unleash. His monitors told him that he needed to drop the output immediately, otherwise his power source may rupture.

Iron Man powered down the uni-beam, cutting off the powerful energy at its source. The beam instantly dissipated into space, harmlessly hurling through the cosmos until it diminished into nothingness.

He couldn't imagine the damage if he had fired the weapon in the city. He hadn't ever come across something like it before, and his modestly wasn't intact enough not to feel a swollen amount of pride.

"Not bad," he said. "Best test yet. I could get used to having a cosmic cube in my pocket."

The cube he had confiscated from Justin Hammer was by far the most exquisite power source he had ever come across. With more modifications to the armor he might have a better chance on controlling the cosmic cube, making the tests in the safety of outer space unnecessary.

Satisfied that he had run the armor through the required testing, Iron Man adjusted his pitch and flipped his boot jets back on. He descended through the atmosphere, letting gravity pull him in at an alarming rate. If it wasn't for his force field he might risk burning up from the friction.

As it stood, the latest version of the Iron Man defensive armor that he had built was better than any of the armor he had worn in the past, both as Iron Man and as the Beetle.

It had taken him nearly a month to incorporate the tech he had stolen from Hammer to his own designs. It was all based off of Starktech, of course, which made the amalgamated armor much easier to build. Tony Stark had been nothing short of a genius and if he had a chance while the inventor was still alive he would have told Stark that to his face.

This new armor could take a turn much tighter than the previous model, and the repulsors were twice as strong because of the cosmic cube. The force field was re-definable on several frequencies. The sonic emitter that Rumiko had been developing, which was in turn stolen by Hammer, was a nice addition that he had tinkered with a bit.

On top of that he had added a few other surprises that would have to wait for his next encounter with a supervillain. Of course, even though he was on his way to see a known supervillain, he didn't plan on blasting the door down.

Unless Felix Judd decided not to let him in.

* * *

"Dude, I really don't think this is the place we need to be calling a headquarters."

A trio of teenagers stepped out of an access hatch and onto a subway platform. The dank and dark surroundings encompassed them completely, giving an overbearing sense of morbidity.

"Why are you always so negative, Patriot?" a caped youth asked. "You don't Iron Lad complaining. It's not like we can go out and buy the Baxter Building."

"That's because Iron Lad didn't grow up where I did," Patriot replied. "The guy barely ever takes off his helmet, but I'm willing to bet he's never even been to my neighborhood."

"Asgardian is right," the armored Iron Lad said. "This place will suit our needs just fine. We need to keep low until we're ready for our debut anyway."

"Exactly!" the teenager called Asgardian exclaimed. "Plus, through these old tunnels we have access to most of the city! We can get around without being spotted." He moved to one of the walls, lifted a staff he rarely ever set down, and cast a blue glow over the wall. "We just clean up this graffiti, get some couches down here—"

The African American teenager called Patriot scoffed. "Sure, plus a Playstation and fifty inch flatscreen, right? Dude, this isn't an apartment. It's a superhero HQ. Grow up."

Asgardian shot Patriot a dirty look, but then doused the soft, blue flame at the tip of his staff. Iron Lad walked by them both and went to the edge of the platform, looking down the long and empty subway tunnel.

He raised his arm in front of his body and a holographic display appeared in front of him. His tapped at the air, signaling the display to run through various scans of the platform. Information scrolled by, casting a green hue over his red and white armor.

"Most of the access ways are sealed off from here," Iron Lad said. "That's good. It means a train won't barrel through here while we're working. We'll open our own entrances to the main tunnels." With a flick of his wrist the hologram disappeared and he turned to face the other two teenagers again. "Good work, Asgardian."

"So what's our first move, fearless leader?" Patriot asked. "Let me guess. You already have it planned out."

"Just about, yes. Once we get our headquarters up and running then the world will be ready for its newest breed of hero."

"Good," Patriot replied. "We already came back in time to find out that we were too late, and now we're stuck here. I'm willing to stick this out with you guys, but we need to get moving. This world is just as bad as the one we left. Worse even. If we're going to make a difference then it needs to be soon."

"Agreed," Iron Lad said with a nod. "I'll get to work immediately."

Asgardian raised his staff up over his head, saying, "Hell, yeah! Bad guys everywhere are going to be shaking in their boots when the world meets the Young Avengers!"

* * *

The villain called The Ghost was a hard man to track down. After Iron Man returned to New York he resumed his initial flight path. There were several locations that Felix Judd, aka The Ghost, could be hiding. For a man who had the technology to literally disappear and walk through walls, he was virtually impossible to find.

Abe had a few connections left in the underworld, though, which meant he had some possibilities to work with. Since learning about The Ghost's involvement in the kidnapping of Pepper Potts and the framing of Happy Hogan for her murder, Iron Man had been wondering if he could actually trust Felix Judd.

After all, he had let him go.*****

*** [All this came out at the end of IRON MAN #9 – D]**

Iron Man hoped that simple fact would be enough for Felix Judd to trust him. The man was a literal mystery amongst supervillains. He had been a saboteur for hire and had never been unmasked before Abe came along. Since he let him go after discovering his involvement, he prayed that would allow him some common courtesy from The Ghost.

The Ghost's cloaking technology would be perfect for Iron Man to sneak around the city without worrying about SHIELD or Justin Hammer trying to track him down. The more he got into this hero thing, the more enemies he had gunning for him.

He recalled Tony Stark using similar stealth technology but didn't have the schematics for it. With Mainframe gone and Rhodes indisposed, he had to work this out on his own. Although, breaking into Stark Tower to retrieve the data was pretty tempting.

Not that he would ever do that. Not now. He was a different person. A whole new Abner Jenkins. Wasn't he?

The derelict building below him was coming up fast. The first of two locations that The Ghost might be hiding in, Iron Man proceeded carefully. He had been on the run before and knew that if a superhero came anywhere near him he might panic. He landed on the roof, fell into a kneeling position, and pressed his knuckles against the hard top.

One of the little gadgets he had incorporated into this new armor were remote drones. He had tinkered with something similar when he was The Beetle, modeling them after his green armor. The drones could take readings for him and sneak into areas he could never hope to get. In theory.

A pneumatic press hissed at the top of both of his gauntlets. Two tiny remote controlled drones shot out of the gauntlets and stabbed through the concrete roof. They punched into the building, one only a few floors and the other reaching into the basement.

Once at the correct depth, they relayed video feed back to Iron Man's HUD. "Nothing on visual," he said. "Let's try a biometric scan."

The drones spun in place, scanning the majority of the building from top to bottom. If The Ghost were hiding there, even if it was between solid matter, the scan would uncover his DNA. It was easy to bend light around you compared to hiding your own biology.

"Crap," he said. "Nothing."

He recalled the drones, which shot back up the chutes they had dug. He reconfirmed the information once they were reconnected in his gauntlets, although the result was the same. The building was completely vacant.

"That just leaves stop number two."

Just before Iron Man switched on his anti-grav engine to lift off the rooftop, his HUD blared an alarm. He fell into a defensive position and switched on his force field, sure that the drones had made a mistake. Apparently all the effort he had put into them was misplaced.

The display inside his helmet told him that a foreign energy signature had been calibrated to his position. He looked around, but the source of the signature couldn't be determined. He swapped through different light spectrums, but no trail emerged.

"Where the hell…"

_ZZZ-WAP!_

An explosion on the roof knocked him back a few feet, but he remained balanced and upright. He shielded his visor from the sudden blast of light, but his sensors told him that the energy wasn't able to penetrate his force field.

A shape slowly emerged out of the light, stalking toward him. It stepped out of the energy vortex, and as soon as the person had both feet on the roof, the energy vanished.

A portal. It had to be. Someone had just teleported in front of him, an unknown person that had yet to declare their intentions. Iron Man charged his repulsors, ready for a fight.

Until he saw who was standing in front of him.

"Hello, Iron Man," the armored figure said. The person stood just as tall as him and, amazingly, he wore armor very similar to his own. "I'd introduce myself, but I don't think you'll believe me."

Whoever this person was, he was wearing a version of the Iron Man defensive armor. A version he had never seen before. The signature hot rod red was there, but the gold color had been replaced by solid black. The uni-beam lens was shaped like a rectangle, and the helmet only had eye slots instead of the usual nose and mouth slots to accompany them.

"Try me," Abe replied. "You might be surprised."

"It's something you have to see rather than hear."

The newcomer reached up to his helmet, lifted the links in the side, and removed it. A shock of dark hair fell over his now bare forehead, just above his deep blue eyes. He had a mustache that matched his hair, and amazingly, Abe recognized the man.

"What's going on?" Iron Man demanded to know. "Who are you?"

"Isn't it obvious?" the newcomer said. "I'm Tony Stark."

As much as Abe wanted to refute the man's statement, given his appearance, it was hard to argue. He looked exactly like the man that Abe Jenkins had battled so many times, and had since come to replace.

In a world where it was just as common to come across your clone as it was bump into your neighbor, Abe was still skeptical. Tony Stark was dead. He, along with sixteen other people, had been killed during the altercation with Onslaught.

"We've learned that it's easiest to come to a new world by making contact with someone we can trust first," Stark said. "We tried it a few different ways, but trust me, after I show you what's next you'll start to understand. I know this is bizarre to you, because the information we recorded about this world says that Tony Stark doesn't exist anymore. Yet, here I am."

"We?"

Tony Stark replaced his helmet, sealing it back on with a hiss. "There are a few people I'd like you to meet. Iron Man 213 to the _Citadel_. Two for transport."

The same enigmatic energy that birthed the newcomer suddenly wrapped around both of them. Iron Man felt himself pulled in two different directions at once, but his armors sensors didn't seem to recognize an alarm.

His stomach flopped over and then in the blink of an eye the portal was gone. He shook the nausea from his head and looked at his new surroundings.

New York City was gone, replaced with what looked to be an operations center. A dozen armored individuals were spaced throughout the center, all of them wearing similar versions of Iron Man's armor.

"Holy shit," Abe muttered.

"Indeed." The black and red armored Iron Man stood beside him. He extended his arm toward the rest of the center as if ushering Abe into the facility. "Welcome to our ship, the _Citadel_."

"Ship?" Iron Man asked.

He turned around to see a huge view screen that had Earth centered in it. Empty space engulfed the planet, which meant it also engulfed him. He was in space, apparently on board a vessel that had a multitude of Iron Men.

"What, exactly, is going on?" Abe asked.

A bulkier Iron Man in gray armor stepped up to them. Magnetically attached to the back of his chestplate was a huge sword that Abe bet could slice through his armor with one strike. There was sense of aristocracy hanging around him, like he was accustomed to having his orders followed.

"We have journeyed from afar to save this world," the bulky Iron Man said. "I am called Ironheart. I believe you will find that you are amongst friends here. Please, relax, and let us explain."

"Explain what?"

"We're a collection," the red and black Iron Man said. "We each come from parallel dimensions, and it's our goal to save the world before it's destroyed."

"To this effect we have contacted you," Ironheart said. "You are invited, sir. Join us in the rebuilding of your world in Iron Man's image, and usher in the New Iron Age."

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** It's the beginning of the New Iron Age! Abe is introduced to various alternate versions of Tony Stark, all of whom share one single goal: to remake Earth in their own image! But what are their reasons, and can all of them be trusted? Plus, the Young Avengers hatch a plot of their own!


	15. The New Iron Age: Part Two

"This…this is _amazing_," Iron Man blurted out.

The gray armored figure in front of him, who bore a huge silver sword magnetically sealed to the back of his armor, placed a lumbering gauntlet on Abe's shoulder plate. "Aye, it is truly a thing of wonderment," Ironheart said. "I remember the rapture I partook in when I first came aboard the _Citadel_. 'Tis an amazing moment indeed."

"Let me get this straight," Iron Man said. "This ship is populated by a ton of alternate versions of Tony Stark, and you're all here to…what exactly? Change the world?"

"For the better, yes," the central figure on the bridge replied. His red and black armor shone with perfect care. His helmet was removed to reveal, as impossible as it appeared, Tony Stark's smiling face. He had identified himself earlier as Iron Man 213. "We're a conglomerate, traveling between dimensions to share our knowledge."

"There is no more noble purpose than this," Ironheart said. "When I first slew the trolls that had come down from Asgard, even my wide-eyes could not fathom the accomplishments I would see done with this crew."

"Asgard?" Iron Man said, looking over the sigils carved into Ironheart's armor. "How different are your worlds from mine?"

"Different enough to know where we went wrong, and where you need our help the most," Iron Man 213 replied. "We're going to remake the world, Iron Man. Onboard this ship we have cures for hundreds of diseases, even ones that haven't developed in this dimension yet."

"Sounds almost too good to be true," Abe replied. "And in my experience, when something is too good to be true then someone is pulling your leg. What do you need me for?"

"You have already fulfilled part of your destiny by taking up where the Tony Stark of your world left off," Ironheart said. "Continue in the steps he had no chance to take. Join us!"

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #14 written by D. Golightly

"The New Iron Age – Part Two of Five"

* * *

The engine room of the _Citadel_ spacecraft took up nearly a third of the entire ship. The massive power couplings needed to traverse between dimensions hummed with energy. The engine, designed by several of the Starks in tandem, was an engineering work of art.

Stacks of massive rings, one on top of the other, channeled power up through the engine. Massive turbines on either side of the stack of rings provided the propulsion needed to make the jumps between dimensions. All of it was contained by specially designed rupture shields based off of Stark repulsor technology.

Several armored figures looked over the engine, ensuring that the core did not rupture. Because of its unique properties, constant monitoring was necessary to make sure a tear didn't form in reality inside the ship. The worst case scenario for a core rupture would result in a black hole being created, and given their proximity to Earth, it could mean the end of the human race.

"Increase rupture shields by thirty-seven percent on the third rung," a man in black armor ordered. The faceplate of his helmet was twisted, leaving the mouth open more so than most of his counterparts. It was his duty to oversee the containment crew that worked furiously to keep the engine in check, making sure nothing was missed.

The Iron Men at the control console made the adjustments he had ordered. The shields surrounding the third ring thickened slightly as a power spike made its way up the engine. Once it hit the third ring, however, it quickly dissolved and was absorbed by the rupture shields.

"Couldn't have done it better myself," an Iron Man wearing orange and blue armor said as he approached. "The relief team is here. Take a break."

The man in the black armor nodded in approval. "Only two spikes this shift," he said. "I almost got bored."

"The new arrival is on the bridge, in case you were wondering," the orange and blue Iron Man said. "Looks like this world doesn't have a Tony Stark anymore. Someone took over for him."

"Hopefully he'll be a good addition." The black armored man took one final glance at the engine before relieving his seat to the new overseer. The rest of the containment crew left their posts, switching out with their replacements as well. "Take care of her."

The new team instantly fell into their routine of monitoring the engine. The black armored Iron Man crossed the massive room to the lift and caught one last sight of the engine before the doors hissed shut.

He removed his helmet, holding onto it with one arm. He was alone in the elevator. Privacy aboard the _Citadel_ was a rarity. He would have to take advantage of the solitude to make the communiqué he had been waiting for.

He only had a few moments before the lift reached the deck where his living quarters were. Pressing a button on his gauntlet, he opened a scanning frequency to check that no one was monitoring the recumbent signal he used. All of the broadcast signals onboard the _Citadel_ were carefully monitored, but he had devised a way to get a message through without being noticed.

After all, why would Tony Stark suspect himself of treason?

A holographic display was projected from the helmet. The rerouting of the recumbent signal had successfully gone through again. He was patched in to a secure location down on the planet and the man he needed to talk to could be seen in the hologram, smiling.

"You've been keeping me waiting," the sinister man in the hologram said. "I thought we agreed that you would never keep me waiting."

"I had no choice," the Iron Man replied. "I have obligations. If I shirked them people would get suspicious."

"I don't care for your excuses. Just tell me what I need to know."

"I don't have the access codes yet. I was nearly done hacking the systems when I was relieved of my post."

The man in the hologram slammed his fist down. "Perhaps I was not clear. Without those codes I cannot—"

"Let's get one thing straight here. I'm in control of this operation, not you. We'll move when I say and not beforehand."

The man in the hologram smiled again. "Of course. Forgive me. I'm merely frustrated, you understand. You approached me almost two months ago, if you recall. You discovered my dimension before the rest of your…_brothers_. You saw opportunity and I appreciate that. However, you cannot expect me to complete my end of the bargain unless you provide me with the access codes to the engine systems."

"And in order for me to have enough time to get the codes I'll need some sort of distraction. Something large enough to draw most of the crew out of the ship. Do that and I won't be interrupted again while hacking the core."

The hologram sneered. "You're beginning to ask for a lot of favors. If I use my resources for this distraction, then you had better succeed in getting me the codes."

"You'll get them. Just make sure that this Abner Jenkins is found as the guilty party and not me. I would hate to have to come down there myself and deal with you if you double-cross me, Mandarin."

"Oh, you need not worry." The snarl on the face of the Mandarin widened as he pressed his fingers together to form an arch. The ten rings on his fingers sparkled inside the hologram. "Abner Jenkins and I have unfinished business. Trust me, I'm quite looking forward to his demise."

* * *

Abe followed Iron Man 213 off the bridge and through the massive corridor. "Just how large is this ship?" he asked.

The red and black armored Iron Man replied over his shoulder, saying, "Only thirteen decks. We had originally planned on it being twenty-seven, but we found that certain structural integrities were lost once we got above thirteen. It has to do with warp physics. Apparently only so much mass can be shoved through the worm holes we open to move between dimensions."

"Worm holes," Abe repeated. "That's how you came here. You opened a tear in reality and walked through."

"In a manner of speaking. It's perfectly safe."

"Seriously? Because it doesn't sound like it. How on Earth did this conglomeration start in the first place?"

"Let me ask you something, Abner." The Iron Man stopped and turned to face Abe. "Did you ever meet Tony Stark before he died in your world?"

Abe quickly flashed on all the altercations he had with Iron Man during his days wearing the Beetle battle armor. "A few times, yeah. We weren't best friends or anything, but yeah, we met."

"Then you probably understand that he was always ready for the worst. If he was anything like me then I bet he had contingency plans put in place in case of his untimely death, plans that eventually led to you being put in the armor you're wearing now. Am I wrong?"

Again, Abe remembered the series of events that had led to him encountering Mainframe and eventually putting on the Iron Man armor. Tony Stark had never actually intended for someone like Abe to wear the armor and carry on his legacy, but since Mainframe had been modeled after Stark's engrams, it was a safe bet that the late Tony Stark would have approved.

"Actually, you're nearly hitting the nail on the head," Abe replied.

The Iron Man spread his arms, motioning to the corridor around them. "And that's what _this_ is all about," he said. "The first Tony Stark that began our mission, the one that survived a cataclysmic event on his world, managed to get word out to three other dimensions about the danger he was in. He was looking for help, and just in case he ever found himself unable to fulfill his duty, he had distress beacons ready to launch. He knew that the infection that had ravaged his world had the ability to traverse dimensions and his warning became a wakeup call for the rest of us."

"So the three dimensions he contacted coordinated their efforts?"

"They did, but it wasn't enough. That world was lost, but the Tony Starks that had been brought together decided to build this ship and reach out to other realities and gain more support for our mission."

"And this mission," Abe said. "Ironheart said that you were going to reshape the world somehow."

Tony smirked. "A slight exaggeration, but not an incorrect one. We have so much to offer, Abner. With your support we can turn this world around before really bad things start to happen."

"What kind of bad things?"

Tony sighed and replaced his helmet, sealing it off with a nearly silent hiss. "You'll have to see for yourself. Follow me."

Abe made sure his own helmet was sealed tightly as he continued in the same footsteps as Iron Man 213. Several other armored figures passed them as they went, each wearing a variation of the armor. Most designs were accompanied by odd color coordination or differences in the helmets. For the most part it seemed like Tony Stark, regardless of what dimension he was in, had the same basic ideas when it came to engineering.

They paused as a secure door that looked thick enough to stop even Iron Man from entering. Iron Man 213 placed the palm of his gauntlet against the scanner beside the door and said, "Designate 213, alpha protocol. Tech recognition."

A blue beam swam over his gauntlet and information scrolled by on the screen. Abe looked at what appeared to be schematics. "Did that just scan your armor?" he asked.

"Since all of us share the same DNA, we have to be a little more creative about how to unlock certain doors around here."

The scan completed and the door slid open. Huge bolts in the sides of the door, now visible from it being opened, moved back into the wall. Abe had seen bank vault doors with smaller bolts for fortification. Whatever he was about to be shown was something they took very seriously.

"A word of caution," Iron Man 213 said. "Don't get too close. We can contain him, but we can't do much to control him."

"Control who?"

"Remember I told you about the Stark that started all of this?"

Abe nodded. "You said he survived whatever ravaged his world."

"He survived alright, but that doesn't mean he lived."

Floodlights suddenly burst on, illuminating a containment cell. In the center of the small cell was a man hanging from a pair of thick, steel chains. He knelt on the floor, his arms pulled up by the chains. His head hung low, but Abe could see the dark hair of Tony Stark. He had no helmet, but he still wore a battered suit of red and gold armor.

Abe looked closer and was stunned. What he thought was shading due to the relatively poor lighting was actually much more serious. Entire chunks of the man's abdomen, armor included, were missing. It looked like a cannon ball had blown through his side, opening him up enough to let his intestines hang out.

The tips of his gauntlets were seemingly chewed away, revealing bone fragments where his fingertips should be. His hair was thin and damp from sweat. When the caged Iron Man looked up at them, Abe almost threw up inside his helmet.

Just like his abdomen, portions of the man's face were completely missing, as if an animal had swiped out one of his cheeks with its claws. His right eye was sunken back and only one of his nostrils was visible.

"My God," Abe muttered. "What…what happened to him?"

"He's dead," the other Iron Man answered. "Or rather, he's undead. A plague swept over his world, turning everyone into bloodthirsty savages that were reduced to eating each other."

"He's a zombie?" Abe exclaimed. "Are you kidding me? He's a friggin' zombie?"

"It's not really a technical term, but yes. We can't figure out how to get him out of his armor without killing him completely. It seems that the armor is keeping him alive without the need to feed, not that he doesn't try every chance he gets."

"So this is the Stark that initially contacted other dimensions."

Iron Man 213 nodded an affirmative. "But when we got to his world we were too late. We built this ship, loaded him on it in hopes we would find a cure, and moved on to the next dimension. Since then we've managed to save countless lives."

"By remaking the world in your own image."

"We have a lot to offer your planet, Abner. All we ask, in exchange for the betterment of humanity, is that we're allowed a limited amount of control. That's only to ensure that resources are used properly so that our goals are met."

Abe looked at the undead Tony Stark, whose breathing was beginning to increase slightly as he pulled on his chains. "What happened to him, it could happen again? It could happen here?"

"It might. Unless we put in the safety measures we've developed first. And we can't do that without your support, Abner. You're the Iron Man of this world. It's your destiny to join us."

Before Abe could respond, a red light flashed in the corner of the containment cell. Iron Man 213 noticeably grew stiff just before he started inputting commands into the side of the pad on his gauntlet.

"Something wrong?" Abe asked. He couldn't take his eyes off of the undead creature staring at him.

"Looks like a little crisis just erupted planet side," the Iron Man replied. "We don't typically like to reveal ourselves this way, but it seems like we have no choice. Despite our cloaking technology it seems someone has found us and they're sending a welcoming party."

"What kind of welcoming party?"

"The kind that just destroyed our antenna probe we had orbiting and is heading straight for us." Iron Man 213 placed his hand on the side of his helmet, switching on a microphone on the inside of his faceplate. "Attention all units! Incoming hostile! Iron Men 1602, 767, and 3490, please report to the airlock. This is not a drill!"

"I'm going, too," Abe said. "This is my reality. My responsibility."

"I was hoping you would say that. I'll show you where you can meet the others. Don't worry about remembering their dimensional numbers, they're the ones that stand out the most around here."

* * *

In the outskirts of the Earth's atmosphere, a lumbering beast of metal hurled straight up toward the _Citadel_. Its wingspan surpassed that of any living creature. Gnarled claws and teeth reflected the sunlight. If Abe hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he never would have believed that a two hundred foot tall metal dragon was heading straight for him.

The airlock in the base of the _Citadel's_ hull spat him and three other armored figures out into open space. Abe only had a few seconds to look them over and was thankful that Ironheart, apparently also known at Iron Man 767, was among their number.

The armored person designated with the dimensional number 3490 couldn't quite be called Iron _Man_. Instead, given the interesting curves of the armor, Iron Woman was much more apt.

"Ready the way!" Iron Man 1602, who also called himself Lord Iron, hollered over the roar of the rushing atmosphere around them. "My lightning bottles will make short work of this monstrosity!"

"Stay in formation!" Iron Woman commanded. "Ironheart! You're up first! Go in high and we'll back you up!"

"Aye, m'Lady!" Ironheart replied as he swept his massive sword out from behind his shoulder.

The bulky gray figure of Ironheart dropped like a stone through the sky. The dragon roared as he approached, seemingly rising to his battle cry. Ironheart used the momentum of his drop to add to the force of his strike, slicing his thick sword into the neck of the metal beast.

Sparks sprang out as metal ground against metal. The dragon shirked away, but only to bend its neck enough to snap at Ironheart. The noble warrior managed to slip his arms around the dragon, sliding down its long and slender neck to land on its back, having done barely enough damage to even dent the beast.

Lord Iron fired his retrorockets to slow his descent just enough to allow him a steady aim. Unleashing the fury of his lightning bottle, electricity arced out at the dragon, lancing into its eyes. The dragon thrashed wildly, bucking up and down and nearly dislodging Ironheart.

"Iron Man!" Iron Woman called out. "I need you to take out the right wing. Can you do that?"

Abe saluted and sped off to flank the dragon, using his gyroscopes to keep him on course. The anti-grav engine enabled him to drop steadily down without worrying about the atmospheric pressure jostling him too much. He looked over to see Iron Woman doing the same and smiled.

Who knew that Tony Stark could look so hot?

Iron Woman focused the lens of her uni-beam and fired a stream of energy at the dragon's left wing. It clipped the wing clear off, vaporizing the bulky hinge that connected it to the dragon's body. The beast roared again and flicked its head out widely, catching Iron Woman off guard.

The heroine was sent toppling head over heels. Abe made a move to intercept her, but Lord Iron went whizzing by over his head to catch her. Satisfied that she would be safe, Iron Man followed suit and focused the lens of his own uni-beam.

_ZZZZZ-WACK!_

The force of his energy attack not only cut free the dragon's wing, but it completely obliterated the back half of the metal creature. The swapping tail burst free from the main body and fell away, leaving the upper body of the dragon to flail about mindlessly in robotic pain.

Since incorporating the cosmic cube as a power source into his armor designs, Abe seldom had a chance to let loose against someone for fear of killing them. He would have to remember to thank whoever had sent the dragon after them.

"Most impressive!" Ironheart called up to him from where he rode on the dragon's back. "Allow me to finish this brute off!"

As the dragon began to fall back to the Earth, Ironheart sliced into its exposed hide with his sword. He carved a tear through the underbelly of the dragon, revealing gears and circuitry that quickly spilled away into the open air.

Miles underneath them, Abe saw the landmasses grow larger and larger as they descended. Their velocity was growing exponentially and he had to make sure that wherever the dragon's remains landed that innocent bystanders wouldn't become casualties.

Directly under them he could see a large body of water that fed into the ocean near the tip of Southeast Asia. If he could manage to nudge the dragon's carcass over just a bit he could avoid racking up a body count.

He recognized one landmass as where Singapore was located, but for some reason could not seem to remember where he had seen this section of the world before. It looked strangely familiar.

Iron Man swept underneath the falling dragon and pushed against the steel skin. "Ironheart," he said. "Mind giving me a hand?"

"I've got it," a feminine voice said from beside him. Abe looked to his left to see the armored form of Iron Woman move into position beside him. "Into the Strait of Malacca I'm assuming?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Of course. Ready?"

With a quick nod, Iron Woman fired her boot jets just as Abe did the same. Together they shoved the rest of the creature out over the open water, ensuring that the residents of the island keys below wouldn't be crushed to death by the falling corpse.

The inanimate dragon smashed into the water, sending pile driving waves out in all directions. The beast floundered one more time before it started to sink down into the water as the onrush of displaced waves came crashing back down on top of it.

Lord Iron swept down to join the other three armored figures where they hovered in the air over the drowned metal monster, brandishing the severed tail in both his hands. "A true feat of curiosity, my new friend," he said to Abe. "Your actions here will not be forgotten by the rest of us. Indeed, you have proven yourself our equal."

Ironheart clapped him on the back. "He fights like a warrior born!" the gray-armored Iron Man added.

Iron Woman looked above them and tapped the side of her helmet to open a communiqué with the _Citadel_. "Situation contained," she said. "Ready to arrival."

"Arrival?" Abe commented. "You don't mean—"

Looking at the coastline of the nearby island, Abe realized where he had seen this part of the globe before. The Strait of Malacca, Southeast Asia, the proximity to Singapore…

"Shit," he muttered. "That's Madripoor, isn't it?"

Something shimmered over his head and he looked up to see the _Citadel_ phase into full view. Its pristine red and gold exterior shone brightly in the evening Madripoor sunset. He could just imagine how the world was going to react to seeing the ship appear suddenly after an obvious attack on it. More importantly, as he looked at the coastline of Madripoor, he imagined what the reaction of James Rhodes would be like, who was only a few miles inland.

Whether he agreed to join them or not, it seemed like the world was about to change.

* * *

"As we've said, this was the scene only hours ago—"

A gloved hand switched off the TV set, eliciting cries of irritation from two other individuals watching the news feed. "Oh, shut your faces, already," the owner of the hand, a young teenager known as Patriot, replied to their comments. "We've been watching this nonstop for the last hour."

"They could open the doors any minute!" Asgardian, his fellow Young Avenger, said. "You know what this means, right? I mean, seriously, guys, _you know what his means_, right?"

"Yes, yes, we know." Patriot rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. "But we can't be sure about anything until we have more information."

Iron Lad typed away furiously at the holographic display that his armor was projecting in front of him. Their newly found lair, while discreet, was a far cry from comfortable living. Despite the fact that Asgardian had located a couch, two mattresses, a mini-fridge, and even a television set did not mean the underground location was secure. He had been working since their arrival from the future to determine as much as he could about their place in time.

"It means we might not be too late!" Asgardian exclaimed as he stood up.

"We don't know that yet," Iron Lad said.

"Dude. Here's what we do know." Asgardian stuck out his index finger. "First, the event that destroys our time started roughly during a twelve month period, which we are currently in. Second, our history books told us that to avert the disaster Tony Stark would have to lead the way. Third, when we get here we find out that Stark is dead."

Asgardian walked to the dead TV set and stabbed his finger at the screen. "But did you see who was chillaxin' on rocket boots beside that giant spaceship? Four Iron Men! One of them has to be Stark! Maybe the history books were a little off about what was supposed to happen. Maybe we can still—"

"I've been monitoring the situation using my time-circuits," Iron Lad responded. "I'm not convinced yet."

"But you admit that there's a possibility, right?" Patriot asked. "As much as I'm tired of listening to him, Billy might be right."

Iron Lad paused in his work to look over his shoulder at the other two teenagers. "I admit that although it first appeared that we missed our window of opportunity with Stark's death that we may still have a chance of success. My armor has been able to analyze the source of that ship's propulsion, and it matches the same signature that brought us here."

"So, what does that mean to us?" Patriot asked.

"It means that I don't believe in coincidences," Iron Lad replied as he shut down his holographic interface. "While I can't be sure of what will happen next, we're obligated to investigate."

"Sweet!" Asgardian said as he pumped his fist in the air. "The Young Avengers are going to go save the world!"

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** The world is ushered into the New Iron Age! Will everyone be compliant with their plan to reshape the planet? Rhodes sits down with Abe while the Young Avengers take a leap of faith! And the Mandarin moves one step closer in his plan…


	16. The New Iron Age: Part Three

Iron Man slid up through the airlock and watched it close shut. His switched off his anti-grav engine and let his metal boots stomp down onto the floor. Beside him, three other armored figures did the same.

"A fine battle!" proclaimed Ironheart. He flicked his huge steel sword over his shoulder where it clamped down onto his back by way of a magnetic attachment.

"Things seem to have unfolded not as we intended," Lord Iron, a hero that seemed to enjoy adventure almost as much as Ironheart did, replied with a smirk. "So be it! Our work should start immediately, of course."

"Not as you intended?" Iron Man shot back. "Are you guys for real? A giant robotic dragon just destroyed your antenna satellite you had orbiting Earth for God knows what reason, we're forced to sink it in the drink, and the entire planet now knows you're here. All you can say is, 'So be it!' You're nuts."

"That satellite was assimilating your world's information for us," Lord Iron said. "Without it we would be blind here."

"Excuse me," the last of their small group, Iron Woman, said. "I know that you're new to all of this, but believe me when I tell you that this was unavoidable. Your world was going to discover us sooner or later."

"I would dare venture sooner," Ironheart said. "'Tis obvious from the monstrosity we just decimated."

"But I thought you guys had plans for introducing yourselves to a new world," Abe said. "Do you typically just sort of show up and see what happens?"

"Of course not," Iron Woman shot back. She unlocked her helmet and slid it off, revealing a main of dark hair that slung down her shoulders. "But what's done is done. It's time to decide, Abner Jenkins. Are you with us or not?"

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #15 written by D. Golightly

"The New Iron Age – Part Three of Five"

* * *

Abe, his own helmet now removed to avoid confusion with the rest of the armored crew, stood in front of a long conference table. Iron Woman sat beside Ironheart, Lord Iron, and several other armored figures. The only other one that Abe had been introduced to was a man wearing red and black armor who had been issued the dimensional number 213.

"Obviously the typical protocols don't apply here," Iron Woman said to the rest of the group. "The Tony Stark of this world is dead. We can't gain the world's confidence by using his word as a starting point."

"There are options," Lord Iron countered. "We could use subterfuge, placing one of our own into the populace and saying that the reports of Tony Stark's demise were greatly exaggerated."

"We're being hailed on nearly every channel by nearly every nation," Iron Man 213 said. "It's only a matter of time before someone is sent to investigate our presence. We need to act quickly and without hesitation."

"I don't think you'll find any argument at this table," Iron Woman responded. "What we need to know is which option is the best option."

"I wouldn't be against simply overrunning their networks like we did on 213's world," Lord Iron said. "For all we know this world could already be in crisis, just like his was."

"Do I even need to bother pointing out the obvious?" Iron Man 213 replied. "My world had been taken over by Apocalypse. The devastation was virtually unbearable. Have you noticed anything resembling World War III here? Taking over their global networks and installing our upgrades without their permission is a bit premature at this point."

"Some aboard the _Citadel_ would disagree with you," Lord Iron said. "Your war torn Age of Apocalypse taught us all lessons we won't soon forget."

Ironheart slapped his massive gray gauntlet down on the table, calling all of their attention to him. He stood slowly and cast his gaze on Abe. "What say you, denizen of this world?" Ironheart said as he pointed a finger at Abe. "The great debate for the future of your world is underfoot! You know this world better than anyone else present. What plan do _you_ propose?"

Abe looked around the room and saw that all eyes were on him. He was worried that it would come to this, but from the sound of things, it seemed like he didn't have much of a choice in the matter anymore.

"You want to know what I would do?" Abe asked. "First off, I would make contact. Someone you can trust. Someone who has clout but isn't affected by government loyalties. You're going to need resources to gain the world's trust if you're going to save it, and I can only think of one man that fits that description."

Abe walked to a viewport in the conference room and peered outside. The coastline of Madripoor was three miles away, but still plainly visible from their altitude. "Luckily," Abe said, "He's just a stone's throw away from here."

* * *

"I don't care how many SHIELD regulations you have to break, just get me that information!"

James Rhodes pressed the button to hang up the call on his Bluetooth headset, ripped the device from his ear, and flung it on his desk. In this day and age of technology, slamming the phone down to convey your annoyance was a forgotten ritual.

He turned to look out the window of his office, focusing on the metallic shine of the hovering spacecraft he had watched shimmer into view. While he couldn't make out much detail from where he was, the news reports had shone him all he needed to see. He recognized Starktech when he saw it. That ship, whoever it belonged to, had access to Stark/Fujikawa technology and as far as he knew they had never built a space ship.

He hadn't been able to get a hold of Abe yet, and he had most of his staff working on gathering whatever intelligence they could on the sudden appearance of the spacecraft. So far they had come up empty.

His phone chirped and with a sigh he picked up the earpiece again. "You better have what I asked for," Rhodes said.

"Was it a large anchovy pizza?" Abe's voice replied into his ear. "Because if it wasn't then this comes out of my paycheck."

"Abe? Where the hell are you? I've been trying to reach you for the last two hours! What do you know about—"

"Relax, Rhodey. Open your window and we'll talk."

Rhodes swung around to look back out his window again, only this time instead of seeing the Strait of Malacca he saw a hovering red and gold armored figure. Iron Man waved at him casually, then tapped on the glass window with one of his knuckles.

Shoveling the window open, Rhodes stood back to allow room for the armored man. Using his anti-grav engine to gracefully enter the room laterally, Iron Man cut power and dropped the few inches to the ground with a thud. He refrained from using his boot jets for fear of lighting the carpet on fire.

"I hope to God that you know what that thing is out there," Rhodes said, pointing out the window. "Because I have everyone from military leaders to the Avengers calling me asking about it."

"They're the good guys," Iron Man replied. "At least, for right now I'm pretty sure they are. You wouldn't believe me if I told you who is onboard that ship."

"Try me."

Iron Man took in a deep breath and cleared his thoughts. "You've been to other worlds before, right?"

"Sure. We're talking aliens here?"

"In a manner of speaking." Iron Man cleared his throat. "Jim. It's Tony."

Rhodes looked at him blankly. "I don't understand."

"Onboard that vessel are over a hundred dead ringers for Tony Stark, right down to the DNA. They hop from dimension to dimension, upgrading the technology and improving the quality of life in order to avoid the plagues that hit their own worlds. They have cures for viruses that haven't even been discovered yet! And you should see the tech they've developed. It's…amazing."

The blank expression remained on Rhodes' face. He didn't so much looked stunned as he looked skeptical. He blinked once, then twice. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. Finally, he raised his eyebrows and said, "As hard as it is to believe, it's not the strangest thing I've come across. How sure are you about their intentions?"

"I looked over some of their records just before coming here. Provided they aren't _all_ lying and they didn't falsify their files—"

"Which isn't unheard of."

"Right, but if they're being honest with me then this could change the world. Literally. I saw a report about them reigniting the Earth's core on a world that had been frozen in orbit. Another one gave details about engineering a second moon to counteract the disruptive gravity pockets surrounding the planet. Rhodey, if they can do things like that then just think of what they could offer us."

"Us, meaning the human race? Or meaning you and me?"

"Look," Iron Man replied. "I'm not stupid. I'm not saying we just let them wander in and take over. But they trust me and I can make sure they stay on the level. We can start slow and build from there, gaining the world's trust as we go. Think about this, Rhodey. Isn't making the world a better place why you put on the armor in the first place? This is a chance to actually do that. No supervillains robbing banks here. Just men doing the right thing."

"Start slow, huh?" Rhodes rubbed the stubble on his chin, pondering everything Abe had said to him. "What did you have in mind?"

* * *

Aboard the _Citadel_, in the central part of the massive engine room, a blue tunnel appeared, spilling stray amounts of arcane energy into the air. The oblong, hollow tunnel birthed out three young individuals, who quickly took defensive stances as they looked around the room.

"I think you're getting better at teleportation, Billy," the star-spangled Patriot said. "I didn't want to throw up that time."

"It's all in the reflexes," Asgardian replied as he wrapped his fingers around a worn staff. "You ever see that old movie? _Big Trouble In Little China_? Kurt Russell? Anyone?"

"Quiet," the red and white armored Iron Lad said. "I'm doing a scan. It doesn't look like anyone is here."

The blue tunnel they had stalked out of disappeared with a wave of Asgardian's hand. His staff, which seldom left his side, granted a portion of his amazing abilities. He looked passed Patriot and Iron Lad to see the towering rings and turbines that comprised the engine, the very thing that had drawn them here.

"I was right," Iron Lad said as he moved closer to the engine. "The energy signature being emitted from this is an exact match to the source that drew us here in the first place."

"Is that why our time-jump missed?" Patriot asked. "We were supposed to arrive almost two years ago, before Stark died."

"My time circuits seem to indicate you're correct. Although I don't recall ever seeing a ship like this in the historical records."

"If we got pulled off course by this thing," Asgardian said, "then how do we know we're even in the right dimension?"

Patriot shot him a quizzical look. "Say what?"

"Iron Lad could probably explain it better, but time and space are related, right? So if we were yanked to the wrong time, couldn't we just as easily have been yanked to the wrong space?"

Patriot glanced at Iron Lad, who nodded an affirmative. "How did you figure that out, Billy?" Patriot asked.

"It was in a movie I saw once. It had Ashton Kutcher and I think it was called—"

Floodlights flipped on, illuminating the three young heroes. Asgardian immediately raised his staff and prepared another defensive spell in his head, just in case they were attacked. Patriot fell into a crouch and swung a pointed shield off of his back, ready to deflect anything that came their way. Iron Lad charged the repulsors in his gauntlets and scanned the area again.

"Identify yourselves," a booming voice demanded. "Did the Mandarin send you?"

"The Mandarin is involved in this?" Patriot whispered. "That is definitely not good."

"Who wants to know?" Asgardian shouted in reply.

A bulky figure in jet black armor dimmed the floodlights and stepped forward. His armor, obviously based on Iron Man, was thicker than more shielded than was typical. The mouth slot on his helmet was also larger, which jagged vertical strips that made it appear as if he were sneering at them.

"I am Iron Man 5012," he responded. "You are intruders aboard this ship. State your intentions or I'll be forced to remove you myself."

"Like you, we're heroes from another place," Iron Lad said. "We've been drawn here by the output of your engine. We don't mean any disruption. We're merely investigating what you're doing here."

"What I'm doing here…" Iron Man 5012 said, trailing off. "You weren't sent by the Mandarin. I'm sorry, but I can't afford for you to talk to the others. Not now."

"What does he mean?" Asgardian said to Patriot.

"I think he means he's going to kill us," the colorful youth replied.

The Iron Man suddenly shoved both of his arms apart and opened the iris on his uni-beam projector. A lance of energy rocketed out directly at the Young Avengers, threatening to vaporize them where they stood.

The trio split apart. Iron Lad leapt into the air and returned fire, showering their assailant with suppression repulsor fire. The armored teenager poured on the blasts, not doing much harm but managing to keep him on the defensive. The shards of energy he tossed pummeled the Iron Man, making him stumble back a few feet.

Patriot grunted as he slung his shield at the black armored foe, putting all of his considerable skill behind the throw. The spinning pointed shield slammed into the Iron Man's chest, slicing a small notch into the lens of the uni-beam. It deflected off of him and landed a dozen feet to his left where Patriot was unable to retrieve it.

Lightning struck inside the massive room, centered on the black Iron Man. Asgardian raised his staff from where he had struck it on the ground and prepared to repeat the action, but the Iron Man shot off a quick repulsor blast and knocked the youth head over heels.

"Billy!" Patriot shouted as he did a series of back flips to avoid the subsequent repulsor blasts aimed at him. "Hold on!"

"Do you know what they called me on my world?" the Iron Man shouted over the fray as his targeting computer locked in the projected trajectory of Iron Lad's flight path. "My entire world had been twisted upside down from what it should have been like. I watched idly as we encountered world after world, all a utopia compared to what I went through. Everyone I knew acted exactly the opposite from what I've seen everywhere else since. And you know what they called me?"

Locking in his trajectory, the black armored aggressor fired both of his repuslors at once and knocked Iron Lad out of the air. The youth wavered in the air for a moment before falling to the floor, unconscious.

"They told me _I_ was the insane one," he said. "They called me the Iron Maniac."

* * *

"Uplink established," Iron Man 213 said. "Ready when they are."

On the bridge of the _Citadel_, the forward viewports were all focused on the island of Madripoor. A dozen armored individuals waited patiently for the signal to proceed. In the lower right hand corner of the screen a news feed displayed James Rhodes giving a press conference from the offices of Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. A plethora of cameras and microphones surrounded him as flash photography dazzled his retinas.

"—established contact with the vessel," Rhodes said as the volume was turned up. "As I've explained, this group of Iron Men offer technology that could only benefit our society. Obviously, as other delegates have made their reservations to open access known, I thought it prudent that Stark/Fujikawa only lead the way. This company's history with Iron Man is as solid as its reputation, and therefore, today, we will help usher in a new age of technology."

Rhodes motioned to a screen behind him that showed the bridge of the _Citadel_, as well as the various armored people looking back at them. "We're prepared to download everything you have to offer, gentlemen," Rhodes said.

Lord Iron nodded to two other Iron Men. With the push of a button, the uplink between the network system databases of Stark/Fujikawa, Inc. and the _Citadel_ became furious with activity. Software upgrades were sent down the line first, enhancing the operating systems of the company's servers.

As the download progressed, the connection grew stronger and faster. As new upgrades were installed, the systems capabilities began to change. The relatively slow speeds of the servers were quickly quadrupled, then multiplied another ten times on top of that. Huge terabytes of information were transferred nearly instantaneously as the Stark/Fujikawa systems struggled to keep up.

"Ready for the nanostream," Iron Man 213 said. "Initiating."

The next burst of information was jam-packed with billions of nano-robotics, riding into the servers on the tails of electrons. The swarm of robots, each one a thousand times smaller than a human flake of skin, began to augment the motherboards, routers, fiber optic lines, and anything else attached to the systems. Physical components were quickly altered to adjust for the new intake of information, as well as the output displays.

Holographic interface systems were created by the nano-robotics, along with slipstream optical displays, body capture relays, and various other technologies. Rhodes and the rest of the people in the conference room watched in amazement as the screen showing them the bridge of the _Citadel_ was converted into a three-dimensional display.

When the download was finalized, the systems of Stark's company had become the most advanced the world had ever seen. It would take them years to reverse engineer some of the technologies that had so freely been given.

"Upgrades complete," Iron Man 213 said proudly. "If that doesn't garner us some clout, I don't know what will."

Abe nodded in agreement. Even though most of the world was cautious about these newcomers, he knew that this was the perfect first step in showing them that everything would be okay.

Ironheart clapped him on the back and said, "You have done the right thing, my friend."

"You know something?" he responded. "For the first time since I put on this armor, I really believe that I'm making a difference."

This thing he had become a part of, this New Iron Age, it was the start of the greatest advancement in human history. And he had been the catalyst in making it happen. Soon the entire world would see that their problems could be fixed, and they would have a reformed criminal to thank for it.

* * *

"Is everything under control?"

The Iron Maniac bobbed his helmet up and down once. "I don't know who the brats are or where they came from," he replied, "but they're not going to be interfering. No one else on the ship even knows they're here, thanks to the dampeners I switched on while hacking the engine systems."

"So the distraction you requested of me succeeded?" the holographic face of the Mandarin inquired.

"The robotic dragon you sent to destroy the satellite we had in orbit drew their attention well enough. Now they're busy saving this world. By the time they get around to learning who sent it in the first place, and any possible connection you have to me, it will be too late."

"Good," the Mandarin responded. He tapped the tips of his fingers together, causing his rings to clink together. "Transmit the codes to me on our secure connection now. When the time is right I'll proceed as we discussed."

"Don't forget," the Iron Maniac said. "Make sure that Abner Jenkins is linked to the security breach. It's going to take time for the plan to work, and putting him up as a patsy will give us the confusion we need."

The hologram of the Mandarin peered over the shoulder of the Iron Maniac. "And them?" he asked.

The black armored man shifted his stance to look behind him, focusing on the three unconscious teenagers he had strapped to the inside of a turbine. The access panel was leaning against the outer casing of the turbine, ready to be put back into place and seal the youths away permanently.

"They'll be the first casualties, I'm afraid," the Iron Maniac said. "When the engine overloads it will begin tearing reality apart from the inside out. There won't be any remains left to identify, should someone ever come looking for them."

"I'm almost sorry to admit that we never had the pleasure of meeting _before_ we destroyed the planet," the Mandarin said. "I rather like this version of Tony Stark."

"When we do what the rest of my so-called brothers are too scared to do, I think there will be ample opportunity to explore that. Transmitting the codes now. We _won't_ be talking again until this is all over."

The Iron Maniac switched off the secure communiqué and the hologram of the Mandarin vanished. He took in a deep breath and focused his thoughts. He was passed the point of no return. Glancing back at the three teenagers that were secured to the inside of one of the turbines for the _Citadel's_ massive engine, he hesitated. Was this who he was meant to be? After all the strike he had undergone in his own dimension, all the hardship…had he really resorted to cold-blooded murder?

Answering to questions like that were never simple. There was no yes or no answer anymore. He had changed, just as his own dimension had changed against his wishes. Seeing how other worlds had survived differently then his was enough to drive him insane.

In fact, seeing those other worlds and the near mockery their existence made of his own version of Earth…just thinking about it made him more determined than ever to proceed as he had planned.

The Iron Maniac placed the access panel back into place and sealed it shut. If the teenage heroes awoke before the Mandarin was able to finish infiltrating the engine's systems, he felt sorry for them. Having your molecular structure crushed down into a singularity was a horrible way to die.

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** The world watches in amazement as the offerings from the _Citadel_ begin to take affect. But the clock is ticking…


	17. The New Iron Age: Part Four

"This is epic," Iron Man said. "As in, biblical."

Abe Jenkins, hidden behind his red and gold Iron Man defensive armor, watched in astonishment as his direct uplink to the Stark/Fujikawa network scrolled across his heads-up display. What he was witnessing would change the world.

Within mere moments the entire online infrastructure of Stark/Fujikawa's mainframes had been severely upgraded. Terrabytes of information had been crammed into their systems, and when they were filled to capacity by software upgrades, the nanostream had been crosslinked to _physically_ change their databanks.

Stark/Fujikawa was now in possession of other-dimensional technology, unlike anything the Earth had seen before. 3D realtime-holographic interfaces had replaced simple computer monitors. Network nodes had been turned into repositories capable of transferring entire drives instead of simply linking them. Keyboards had been transformed before the naked eye into body-capture inputs.

It was straight out of a science fiction movie, and it had all happened because of Abe.

A lumbering brute in gray Iron Man armor clapped a gauntlet-covered hand on Abe's back. "You have taken the first step, my friend," Ironheart said heartily. "Once the world has the chance to review our _Citadel_ technology they will soon allow us access to their governments. They will see that our intentions are noble and the troubles of our collective worlds will never be felt by your own. You are to be praised!"

Abe nodded in response as he continued to keep an eye on his HUD. It would take Rhodey's R&D teams decades to reverse engineer some of the tech he was looking at. He couldn't wait to get his own fingers sticky, he had to admit. The sprockets in his mind were turning furiously as he imagined the upgrades he could give his own refurbished armor.

"It's going to take some time before they allow us that kind of access, Iron Man 767," another armored figure, Iron Woman, said to Ironheart. "We'll be playing the waiting game for a little bit while Abner's contacts sift through the miracles we just handed over."

Beside Abe, the red and black armored Iron Man 213 removed his helmet, revealing the unmistakable face of Tony Stark. While Abe had gotten used to seeing a dead man's face plastered on every person onboard the _Citadel_ it still made him do a double-take.

"I'd say that waiting is the hard part," he said to Abe, "but it's going to be clear sailing from here. Getting even one person to accept us was the real task."

"He speaks from experience," Iron Woman commented. "Before we had certain protocols established the hardest part was not getting attacked on sight. Once we had MODOKs swarming the _Citadel_ right after we—"

A nearly silent audible chirp on the console in front of Iron Woman caught her attention. She tilted her head to look at the console interface and swapped through several options, sifting through the alert information.

"How did…" she muttered. Her head shot back up and looked directly at Abe, then she turned to Lord Iron and Ironheart. "We have a problem."

"Words I seldom enjoy hearing," Lord Iron responded as his hand drifted to the top of his lightning bottle.

"The engine has been comprised," Iron Woman stated. "Someone hacked the operations hub, changed the interface encoding, and broadcast the new sequence to somewhere in Japan. We've lost control completely."

"What?" Ironheart exclaimed.

"Such a feat would have to be undertaken onboard the ship," Lord Iron replied. "The interface is close-circuit. It would be impossible for someone to hack into the engine without physically being in front of it."

Iron Woman's gauntlets began to glow as her repulsors hummed to life. "Exactly," she said. "The system marked the signature of the armor being worn by the person who did it. I don't know how, but our friend Abner here just betrayed us."

Beneath his helmet, Abe's eye's widened. "Uh…come again?" he murmured.

**IRON MAN**

Issue #16 written by D. Golightly

"The New Iron Age – Part Four of Five"

"Dude. Dude! Wake up!"

Patriot sat up suddenly, although he could barely see where he was in the darkness. He could tell that it was a small room, sealed off all around them, and that he was still in the company of his fellow Young Avengers, Asgardian and Iron Lad.

He rubbed his forehead with one hand and smacked away Asgardian with the other. "Stop shaking me," he muttered. The cobwebs in his head were still clinging to his brain. "What happened? Where are we?"

"Inside the engine," Iron Lad calmly replied. "Or one of the turbines, at the very least. The…Iron Maniac, as he called himself, took us down like amateurs and locked us away in here."

"So?" Patriot tried to stand up but the chamber was too small. He hunched over and stared at his compatriots. "Repuslor the hatch open or something."

Iron Lad shook his head. "He did something to shut my systems down. I can barely move. I'm trapped inside my own armor."

Patriot looked to Asgardian, who threw up his hands defensively. "Don't look at me," he said. "That fruitcake tossed my staff outside, along with your shield. No staff, no lightning, no magic."

Patriot glanced at the floor and then felt his back where he normally strapped his pointed, multi-colored shield. It was gone. They were trapped and defenseless, and they had no idea why. All they knew was that the engine's energy signature had thrown their time-jump off course, and when they had come to investigate, the Iron Maniac had attacked and locked them away. On top of that, they knew the Mandarin was somehow involved.

"That's just great. Do you have any idea how much trust was placed in me to keep that shield safe? My uncle is going to kill me."

"We have larger problems at the moment," Iron Lad said. "The Iron Maniac broadcast some sort of complex interweb transmission before he shut us in here. It went somewhere in Japan, but I wasn't able to lock down an exact location."

Patriot smirked. "You're practically useless." The sarcasm was evident enough in his voice that he didn't have to worry about offending his teammate.

Asgardian elbowed Iron Lad. "Tell him the cool part," the youngest of their number said.

"I wouldn't say I'm totally useless," Iron Lad responded. "I managed to triple-encrypt his broadcast before he locked me in my armor. The Mandarin, if that's who he was broadcasting to, is going to be really irritated when he finishes downloading whatever was sent to him."

"So we've got some time before stuff goes down?"

Iron Lad nodded at Patriot. "Not much, but we've got some time."

Abe took a few steps back toward the rear of the _Citadel's_ bridge. The nearly dozen Iron Men around him were all focused entirely on his movements. "Hold on a second," he said. "There's been a mistake."

"Are you sure about this?" Lord Iron asked Iron Woman.

"The logs confirm it," she replied. "Abner somehow hacked us. Maybe he'd like to tell us why."

_SSSSHING!_

Metal scraped against metal as Ironheart withdrew his long sword from where it magnetically rested on his back. He flipped a switch at the base and the blade began to glow blue as repulsor energy filled the blade. He hefted it over his head and issued his ultimatum: "Power your armor down, friend, or have it forcibly removed from you."

"Listen, I don't understand what's going on here, but I—"

Ironheart bellowed a cry of intent as he lunged forward, slashing the blazing sword down at Abe. He jumped back to avoid the strike, barely getting out of the way in time. The blue streak of light from the sword hung in the air in front of him for a split second, and in that split second all hell broke loose.

Lord Iron unleashed his bottled lightning, directing it at Abe. Arcs of cobalt energy lashed at him, but Abe managed to throw up his second-skin shielding just in time to deflect the attack. Electricity scattered over the wall and consoles of the bridge, shorting out systems left and right.

Abe ground his teeth and regretfully opened the irises in the palms of his gauntlets. His own repulsors, charged to the brim by the cosmic cube powering his armor, were more than twice as strong as any of the others. He extended his hands in two directions and the concussive force lancing from his gauntlets shoved both Ironheart and Lord Iron across the bridge.

He knew that returning fire would only make him look guiltier, which to him was ridiculous because he didn't know what he was being accused of, but he had no choice. Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, he leapt into action.

Iron Woman let loose her uni-beam, which Abe ducked under, causing it to slice into the console and displays behind him. To the far right Iron Man 213 and several other armored individuals he hadn't gotten to know yet were charging their own uni-beams. He had to get out of such close quarters and find some cover.

Of course, simply running away wouldn't solve his problem either. Obviously he had been set up and had to discover his unseen assailant before the entire army of Iron Men came down on him.

Flipping on his anti-grav engine and kicking up the throttle on his boot jets, Abe made a beeline for the bridge exit. He barreled over two other armored figures, scraping by them with barely enough room to maneuver properly within the confined quarters.

He heard one of the Starks behind him in the bridge issue a ship-wide alert and the hallways he flew through were filled with a blinking red light, accompanied by a klaxon alarm. He wasn't sure just how many Iron Men were on board the _Citadel_, but he realized that he was probably about to find out. The faster he could clear his name, the better.

During his initial tour of the ship he had been taken through the massive engine room. The repulsor technology that allowed the incredible ship to traverse dimensions had been taken to the next several levels, instilling the ability to push away from entire dimensions. Not only did it provide local propulsion, but it could safely jump between planes of reality.

The nexgen engine was what Iron Woman had accused him of tampering with, so that was where he would start looking for answers. Also during the tour Iron Man 213 had shown him their system for keeping track of who was where. Since everyone on board was an alternate version of Tony Stark, they kept track of each individual's unique armor configuration. Iron Woman had said that his armor had been scanned in the engine room, marking him as the culprit.

Only he hadn't been back there since his initial visit. Someone on board was certainly a traitor, but it wasn't him. Someone had set him up, and judging from the stance of the two Iron Men coming up in the corridor ahead of him, it had worked like a charm.

One of the armored figures sported a green and yellow armor that reminded Abe of the short stint he did in the Vault, a superhuman penitentiary center, where all the guards wore had a similar color scheme. His partner had a patchwork quilt of armor, with thinner modular pieces of mismatched colors blended together as if he had scavenged the armor from several sources.

Four arms with four fists, all belonging to the pair of Iron Men, rose to point at him. He could see the irises inside each palm begin to open as repulsor energy spilled out. His second-skin force field wouldn't be enough to take an assault like that.

When he had designed his new armor, which had been a necessity after Justin Hammer had gotten through with him, he had incorporated several new items into his arsenal. He was an engineer at heart, after all, and tinkering with Tony Stark's original design had been more fun than he had imagined. He hadn't field tested everything yet, but the present circumstances would have to due as far as a dry run was concerned.

Two slats unlatched from his shoulders, sliding up into position beside his neck. The targeting computer on his HUD tracked the palms of both Iron Men, locking their positions with red crosshairs. A split second later, micro-missiles launched from his shoulders.

The tiny warheads on the tips of the missiles collided with the awaiting repulsor beam generators and were instantly covered with a viscous, thick fluid that hardened on impact. The small lenses imbedded in their palms were coated completely, sealing away the dangerous repulsor energy.

Abe had wanted to incorporate more weaponry into his arsenal, but maintain its non-lethality. The sticky fluid had been based on some old files of Stark's, but he had seemed to have trouble with the chemical composition once the container had been breached and exposed to air. With a bit of tinkering, and a few notes from Stark/Fujikawa's research department, Abe had fixed the problem and even improved on it. The delivery system was nothing special, but he had been able to condense the fluid enough pre-exposure to ensure that upon impact it would expand to the necessary proportions.

The pair of Iron Men were befuddled and their repulsors were useless. The green and yellow one angled a shoulder mounted cannon at him, but Abe was moving too fast for him to track and return fire at this point. He fired a shot and it went wide, easily missing Abe by three feet.

Iron Man took advantage of their surprise, rocketing between them and clipping the side of each of them to knock them down. He turned up the throttle as far as he dared within close confines and hurried down the corridor before more Iron Men could come after him.

He punched through the closed doorway that led to the elevator shaft that ran through the center of the _Citadel_. Angling himself upward, Iron Man shot up the shaft like a rocket. Doors to the other decks blurred by as he rose through the massive spacecraft.

He reached the appropriate level and stopped suddenly. He pulled back his fist, punched into the crack between the two doors, and ripped them open. He prepared his defenses for another onslaught of repulsor fire, or worse, and charged his own weapons to retaliate. There was a constant watch team in place around the engine to ensure that energy spikes didn't disrupt the delicate structure, which could result in an accident bad enough to wipe out the eastern seaboard. There was no doubt in his mind that a dozen Iron Men would be waiting to wipe the floor with him. His targeting computer zipped across his visor, locking in on…

…nothing.

He gently floated into the engine room, supported by his anti-grav engine. His onboard systems busily scanned through the room, switching through different spectrums to try and locate a target. The room was completely empty and he was apparently alone.

"Okay, this is like a creepy movie," he muttered to himself.

The huge, lumbering engine churned away, generating the power necessary to move between dimensions. Stacks of wide, encircling rings ran up the length of the central pillar that comprised the engine, channeling the power into the side turbines. Rupture shields moved into place where it was necessary to contain an energy spike, although when Abe had been brought through before it had taken an entire crew to operate the shields appropriately. It looked as if someone had set the engine to run automatically.

He spotted the central console that operated the engine. Before he could move closer to investigate, his scanners finally picked up a trace energy signature that differed from the one being emitted from the engine turbines. Masked by the turbines themselves, the energy signature seemed to be coming from inside one of the turbines.

While the signature was present inside one turbine, it was strangely absent from the other. It was either an anomaly or a clue. Iron Man floated toward the top of the turbine, locating a compartment panel there. Shoving his gauntlet-covered fingers into the edges he ripped the panel back and was entranced by the last thing he ever expected to see: three teenage boys staring back at him, ready to fight.

"Stand down," a bald black boy said to the other two teenagers. He wore red, white, and blue and looked like a Captain America wannabe. "It's not him. This is…actually, I'm not sure who that is. Who are you?"

"Maybe he's working with the other one," a kid wearing a red cape and winged helmet commented. "Or he's in disguise."

"Disguised in a similar armor? What kind of sense does that make, Asgardian?"

Abe dropped the panel cover and hovered back a few feet, giving himself space during the confusion. "Who are you?" he asked.

"We asked you first," Asgardian shot back.

"We don't have time to argue," the third teenager, wearing red and silver armor, responded. He looked like a younger, leaner version of Iron Man. "The longer we waste here the closer the Mandarin will get to deciphering my encryption."

"Mandarin?" Abe tensed. The Mandarin was one of Tony Stark's worst enemies, one that had openly attacked Abe just after he had made his public debut as Iron Man. He recalled what Iron Woman had said about a transmission to Japan. "Are you working for the Mandarin?"

"Hell no," the black youth said. "Do we look like scumbag supervillains?"

"Listen, kid, I'm pretty much in the dark here. Enlighten me, won't you?"

The armored teenager stepped in front of Asgardian, who had opened his mouth to reply with a sarcastic quip. "I'm Iron Lad," he said. "This is Patriot and Asgardian. We're the Young Avengers, and we're from the future. I understand how bizarre and unbelievable that may sound—"

Iron Man raised a hand up nonchalantly. "No, that makes sense," he replied. "What are you doing inside the engine?"

"Oh," Iron Lad said, surprise lacing his voice. "Uh…we were trying to figure out exactly what was going on here when we were jumped by one of the armored crew members of this ship. He called himself the Iron Maniac. He locked down my armor, took away our weapons, and shoved us inside here right after he broadcast a signal planet side."

Abe's mind was reeling. There was a traitor on board the _Citadel_. Working with the Mandarin, no less. "Do you think you could—"

_Ffff-WHAM!_

Sizzling energy splashed against Iron Man's back, knocking him against the turbine and then down to the floor. Smoke rose from his armor as it tried to absorb the heat of the attack. On his hands and knees, Abe glanced over his shoulder to see the black armor belonging to another Tony Stark hover down into view. The mouth of his helmet was elongated to create an eerie presence.

"Imagine my surprise when I discovered what the brat had done to my transmission," the Iron Maniac said. "I'd commend him if I didn't want to kill him. And now the local talent has seen fit to intercede. Can't you just roll over like a good scapegoat?"

Abe managed to rise into a kneeling position. "You're working for the Mandarin," he accused. "Why?"

The enlarged chest-mounted uni-beam on the Iron Maniac's armor blazed to life and energy engorged Iron Man. "Not _for_ the Mandarin," he shouted. "_With_ him! We're partners, you moronic dolt. After I'm a safe distance away from here he'll cause the engine to go critical, allowing us to hold the world ransom and thus reshape it to our own devices."

He spun to face the Young Avengers, who helplessly were forced to watch as Abe was tortured under the intense assault. "But that can't happen until I get the encryption codes from our young friend here. Give them to me, boy."

"Bite me," Asgardian said.

"I wasn't talking to you, whelp," the Iron Maniac shot back. "But be patient. I'll kill you in a moment. Maybe that will free up your armored friend's concentration."

"If you stand down now," Patriot said, "we promise not to hurt you too much."

The Iron Maniac let out a guffaw. "And what makes you think you could even hope to accomplish that little goal? I defeated you easily before, and that was when you had some type of offense."

"Believe it or not, we're still pretty offensive." Patriot nodded down behind the Iron Maniac. "Besides, we don't need weapons to distract you."

The Iron Maniac paused, then followed Patriot's line of site back down underneath him to see Iron Man unleash a dual dose of repulsor blasts against him. The cosmically fueled energy punched the Iron Maniac across the expansive engine room, sending him flying head over heels until his flight systems righted him.

"Move, Avengers!" Patriot called out.

The teenagers spilled out of the turbine as Iron Man flew into the air, driving his fists directly at the Iron Maniac. His armor was thicker than Abe's, providing much more protection and allowing for more resistance to his punches. He barely managed to dent his chestplate before being knocked back by a punch of Iron Maniac's.

Taking a different tactic, Abe ducked under the next swing and maneuvered behind the Iron Maniac, wrapping his arms underneath his opponent's. He locked him into a choke hold and commanded his servo motors to not budge from that position.

"Why are you doing this?" Abe demanded. "I thought all you Starks were the same. Why betray your own kind like this?"

"Because of the sheer hypocrisy of it all! I couldn't' even try to explain it to you. I'm talking to a dead man, especially once the Mandarin gets through with you. He _really_ hates you, do you know that?"

"I had an idea, yeah."

Something colorful caught Abe's attention from the corner of his eye. In an instant that something grew larger and larger as he realized it was an object spinning directly for them. He angled the Iron Maniac into position just before the object lodged its tip into the thick, black armor mere inches from the uni0beam lens.

Peering over the Iron Maniac's shoulder Abe recognized it as a star-spangled shield, shaped like a pointed crest. Its edge was razor sharp and had sunk several inches into the Iron Maniac's armor.

"Nailed it!" Patriot said gleefully from the floor of the engine room. "Next time you disarm someone and lock them away, maybe try to hide their weapons instead of leaving them lying around."

"Yeah!" Asgardian chimed in. "Now suck on this!"

"Wait! Don't!" Iron Lad reached a hand toward Asgardian, but his warning came too late.

The godly youth raised his seemingly normal staff of dried wood and slammed the bottom onto the ground. Lightning suddenly danced around him and lanced toward the Iron Maniac, wrapping him in its blue and white glow.

Unfortunately, Iron Man was still gripping him tightly, locked in place by his servo motors. The powerful electricity arced through his systems as well, and after a split second of extreme pain, the feedback shock broke his hold and the pair was forced apart.

Iron Man smashed into the side of the turbine and fell to the floor again. He glanced at Asgardian, who had a look on his face like he had just cost them the battle and despair was sinking in.

The Iron Maniac managed to move laterally so his feet pressed against the wall of the engine room. Kicking off of the wall with the aid of his boot jets, he righted himself immediately and set his targeting computer for all three of the teenagers.

With one swipe of his gauntlet he slapped the shield off of his chestplate. A small incision where the tip had punctured his armor was the worse damage he had to show from the battle, while the other four heroes were looking strained, battered and worried.

He focused his attention on Iron Lad. "Little boy, either give me the encryption key or I'll simply rip your armor into pieces while you're still in it and download what I need from the scraps."

"You can try," the youth replied.

Iron Man reset his HUD's calibration and zoomed in his visor control to look at the Iron Maniac's chestplate. His targeting computer centered exactly where he needed it to, and when the Iron Maniac screamed in irritation and defiance at Iron Lad's remark, Iron Man launched his last ditch effort of defeating the crazed Tony Stark. All that could be seen was a small puff of steam from his gauntlet.

The Iron Maniac lunged for Iron Lad, who was still locked in his armor. Asgardian and Patriot ran to him, but they hadn't moved more than a few feet before the Iron Maniac paused in midair and choked back his aggression.

His right arm contorted strangely and looked in shock at Iron Man. "What did you do to me?" he demanded.

"In a past life I used these little drones to scour places for me, searching for whatever I needed," Abe responded. He stood up and brushed off the front of his armor, which was dented and scraped. "I just started using them again.***** That little chink in your armor was all I needed to send one of my drones into your systems and totally ravage it."

*** [He used them to search for Felix Judd in IRON MAN #13 – D]**

The Iron Maniac's own HUD confirmed what Abe was telling him. A small microbot, no larger than an eraser, was busily gnawing through his internal systems. One by one his armor's components were shutting down as the drone obliterated his armor from the inside out.

"No," the Iron Maniac muttered. "No! I'll…I'll reroute power and adjust for—"

The once steady glow in the center of his uni-beam aperture died off, leaving his armor eerily dark. He wavered in midair for a moment before falling to the ground like a paperweight. He was now locked inside his own armor, only unlike Iron Lad, he couldn't even move. The drone made sure to rip apart the servo motors, resulting in the Iron Maniac's armor becoming nothing more than a cumbersome suit of metal.

The small drone popped back out of the chestplate incision and returned to Abe's gauntlet. The tiny drill at the front of the drone was glowing red hot, but it hadn't melted or dulled from overuse.

"That was pretty awesome," Asgardian said as he and Patriot stepped closer to Abe. "Sorry about the whole electrocuting you thing. You know how it is."

Iron Lad, who had moved to the engine control console, suddenly spoke up. "It's not over yet! The engine core is getting an energy spike and we damaged one of the rupture shields during the brawl!" He manipulated the holographic interface, switching through the light displays with rapid understanding. "I…I don't think I can compensate. This is bad. This is very bad."

"Which one of the rupture shields needs put back in place?" Iron Man demanded as he leapt into the air and headed for the large engine.

"Third rung! It's been knocked out of position!"

He slipped his hands underneath the large, flat, hovering rupture shield that hung lazily just outside the perimeter of the engine cylinder. Looking straight down into the engine from that height he could see the pulses of energy building, threatening to blow out the side of the casing.

He fired his boot jets and pressed against the rupture shield. He could see the building energy coming closer and closer. He had to get the shield in place before it was too late. The blue and white candescence of the inside of the engine was steadily increasing and the shield was barely moving an inch. At this pace he wasn't going to make it in time.

"Easy, friend. You will have the aid you require."

Abe looked to his right and saw the bulky, gray metal gauntlets of Ironheart press against the rupture shield beside his own. With the added strength of Ironheart's armor, the shield suddenly slid into place just as the energy spike washed over it. The imminent danger had been contained as the spike dissipated back into the energy matrix of the huge engine.

Iron Man floated back and gently lowered to the ground. Ironheart fell into place in front of him, albeit much less gracefully. The sword was still magnetically attached to his back, but its deadly power was locked away and deactivated.

Behind him were another dozen armored figures; the Iron Men had closed on his position. Iron Woman, Lord Iron, and many others were all focused on him. Several had joined Iron Lad at the console and were busily working the controls.

Abe pointed at the fallen Iron Maniac. "You've got a fallen angel," he said. "I don't know what other damage he did to the ship, but you have to—"

"We unscrambled his hacking," Iron Woman said as she approached to stand beside Ironheart. "We know he set you up. The video surveillance was recovered and we accessed the feed as you were fighting him. We saw everything."

"Apologies," Lord Iron said. He offered his hand to Abe.

Abe waved it off. "Not necessary. I would have thought the same thing. We don't have time to sulk, anyway. The Mandarin will get control of your engine as soon as he decrypts the access codes." He nodded to Iron Lad. "Kid…how much time did your encryption buy us?"

"A few hours at the most," Iron Lad replied.

"Evil Stark over there said he and the Mandarin could destroy the world somehow using the engine. Is that possible?"

Iron Woman nodded. "Worse. If he manages to overload the engine then the dimensional gateway that the engine creates to transport us between worlds could become inverted."

"And that would be bad because…"

"It would effectively create a black hole inside the ship. All life as we know it would be crushed down into a singularity. Nothing, not even light, would be able to escape."

"Wow. Yeah, I'd say that's pretty bad." Iron Man glanced at the Young Avengers and the other Iron Men surrounding him. The large engine hummed behind them, pulsing with the power to destroy an entire galaxy. "We'll have to work quickly then."

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** The New Iron Age concludes! With the might of the Iron Man collective behind him, Abe takes the fight to Japan. Before the big blow-out he'll have a quick stop to make as he tracks down the one man that can give him the edge over the Mandarin. The final showdown with the Mandarin, the destiny of the Young Avengers, the fate of Stark/Fujikawa, and when the dust settles one person will be forever changed!


	18. The New Iron Age: Part Five

Far beneath the surface, an emperor without an empire sat in contemplation of his latest scheme.

For decades he had been after one thing: the death of Tony Stark. Time and again the armored hero had humiliated him, handing him one defeat after the next. It was enough to drive a normal man insane. For the Mandarin, ruler of the ten rings of power, it was simply enough to infuriate him.

A perfect blending of science and magic had been the edge that the Mandarin had over Stark. His ten rings, forged from alien technology, had mimicked magic for so long that people revered him as an earthly god. He had led thousands to their glorious deaths, both in the battlefield and in the boardroom. He was a man that had achieved the pinnacle of human perfection. He was an economic king, and a specimen that had battled gods of thunder.

Even though Stark did not possess his achievements, he somehow always came out on top. It became his life's work to defeat Stark, until that victory had eventually been robbed from him by the catastrophe known as Onslaught.

Robbed of his vengeance, the Mandarin stewed. After a run-in with the usurper to the armor, an alternate version of Tony Stark had approached him.

At last, he had Stark begging at his feet! While this Iron Maniac from another dimension would fulfill his desire to murder Stark with his bare hands, he would also serve as the perfect patsy to gain access to the other-dimensional technology aboard their ship, the _Citadel_.

The Mandarin sat at a console deep within his labyrinthine home, awaiting the decryption of the access codes to the Citadel's engine. The fool Maniac had sent them encrypted for some reason, perhaps as a form of insurance that he wouldn't proceed with their plan without him.

But that was hours ago. The Maniac had failed to report in as planned, which meant he was either caught or dead. No matter. Soon the Mandarin's computer would decode the transmission and hold the world hostage.

And the best part was that he would do all of this in Stark's name.

* * *

**IRON MAN**

Issue #17 written by D. Golightly

"The New Iron Age – Part Five of Five"

* * *

"You're doing what?"

The man known as Felix Judd faced Iron Man in his nearly packed lab. All of his equipment, that he had been working on moving to skip town, was neatly stacked against the walls of the lab and ready for transport.

Iron Man flexed his fingers in agitation. He was on a tight clock and didn't have a lot of time to repeat himself. "I said I'm going up again the Mandarin and I need your help," Iron Man said.

"I thought I heard that right." Felix plopped himself down onto the stool in front of a work bench and sighed. "Look, I appreciate what you did for me, but I really just want to get out of the game, you know?"

"What I did was save your life from Spymaster," Iron Man said.***** He crossed his arms over his chestplate. "I don't usually pull this card, but I think you owe me one. Maybe two."

*** [Felix Judd was unveiled as the elusive Ghost after Iron Man tracked Spymaster in IRON MAN #9]**

"What is it with you heroes, huh?" Felix exclaimed. "I know you aren't the original Iron Man, but you're a lot like him. You just won't let up. I'm done with this super crap. I made my money, I learned my lesson, and I'm out, okay?"

"If you don't give me the help I need," Iron Man said, "then there's a good chance that people may die."

"So what?" Felix pointed at himself. "Supervillain, remember? Why would I even care?"

"Because you're reformed. If you want to start a new life, then I can respect that, but ask yourself this…can you live that new life with a clear conscious if you let good people die?"

"You say that like you've experienced it. If you took off that helmet would I recognize the face underneath?"

Iron Man hesitated, but then said, "Look, you're starting over for a reason. I can only assume what that reason is. Since you were the Ghost and no one knew who you were for years, it's safe to say that you aren't running away to get a new identity. You probably don't have someone coming after you again since, you know, you're whole thing was that you could disappear without a trace."

Felix stared at him and was visibly growing upset.

"That only leaves one reason why you would bail on your entire life. You've got someone close to you that you need to protect. Living the life of a professional supervillain saboteur doesn't exactly leave you with a lot of time for loved ones, right? So, who is it?"

"Shut up."

"Wife? Sister? Uncle? Cousin?"

"Shut up."

"I'm dead serious when I tell you that whoever you're starting your life over with will be in danger if I don't stop the Mandarin. This isn't a cheap trick to convince you to help me. It's the truth."

Felix Judd broke his gaze, turning it on the linoleum floor tiles. He was obviously fuming, uncomfortable about having his own morals questioned in what was left of his workshop. After a long pause he finally broke his silence.

"I'd call your bluff," Felix said, "but we both know that the Mandarin is a world power. He's a walking nuclear bomb with those rings of his. You have a plan to take him down?"

Behind his faceplate, Abe Jenkins smiled. "The element of surprise has always been a good plan. Who better to sneak up on someone than the Ghost, right?"

* * *

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Patriot?"

The young Asgardian floated beside his compatriots in the Young Avengers, heroes from the future. Supported amongst the clouds by his magic staff, Asgardian waited for Patriot's reply as they hovered miles above the Earth's surface.

"Hello?" Asgardian said. "Earth to Patriot?"

"He's scared of heights," Iron Lad said from the other side of Asgardian. His red and white armor glistened in the sunlight, which blazed behind them. "Maybe let him keep his focus instead of asking about his doubts, okay?"

"There is nothing to fear, my friend!" the armored behemoth, Ironheart, said heartily. He clapped Patriot on the back with his gray gauntlet. "With us at your side, you need not be afraid of such a small fall."

"Small?" Patriot said. "Are you serious? Dude, you need to get your vision checked. We're at least three miles up! A fall from here would leave nothing but a red, white, and blue stain on the ground."

Ironheart laughed again, although he refuted from prodding at Patriot anymore. He knew that the battle to come was to be a vicious one, and if his comrades-in-arms needed leeway from his levity, then so be it.

He instead removed his giant broadsword from where it magnetically hung on his back, checking its repulsor charge. The platform that he, Patriot, and Lord Iron stood upon was one of the latter's inventions, and had proven most useful to the Iron Men that could not fly under their own power.

Surrounding the platform was Asgardian, Iron Lad, and a dozen other Iron Men from the _Citadel_. They were all ready for action in their correct positions. The plan was going to require timing and finesse on their part, and each member of their strike squad was prepared to do exactly as instructed.

Miles below them was the location that Iron Lad had pinpointed as where the Iron Maniac had beamed his encoded transmission to the Mandarin. It had taken precise trigonometry, but they had calculated correctly, Iron Lad was sure of it.

"Are you sure we aren't breaking some sort of diplomatic immunity for this fruitcake?" Asgardian asked. "I mean, he is a Chinese foreign national, and one of the stronger facets of the Japanese economy, right?"

"That's only because his government turns a blind eye to his operation," Iron Lad replied. "According to history, the Mandarin was practically a hero to the Japanese because of his corporation, even though he's from China. They won't deport him. His American crimes were never counted against him as long as they remained on American soil."

"But out little distraction today…"

Iron Lad nodded. "Will out him in his own country, plus give Iron Man the chance he needs to get inside."

A female in form-fitting armor hovered just a bit closer to the platform. "My scanners tell me that everyone is in place," Iron Woman said. "Get ready."

"I was born ready!" Asgardian hollered. He looked over at Patriot, who even though had a steel resolve plastered on his face, was noticeably still bothered by the extreme height. "Uh…he was born ready, too. He's just meditating."

* * *

Iron Man walked directly up to the corporate headquarters of Xi International, the front for the Mandarin's criminal activities. It was located in a heavily populated area, with dense construction all around the property. Inside the borders of the property, however, were lush gardens maintained by the Mandarin's employees.

With gin blossoms on his left, and several bonsai trees to his right, Iron Man strolled up the central pathway that lead between the parking lots and directly up to the front door. Dozens of people came and went, most nearly brushing up against him. It wouldn't matter if they did, however, as he had become something of a ghost to the naked eye.

It hadn't taken long to incorporate the Ghost's technology into his systems. Most of it was refurbished Stark-tech anyway. The operating systems were nearly identical, so programming the new applications of his armor had taken mere minutes. After barely an hour spent in Felix Judd's lab, Abe Jenkins had a whole new power-set as Iron Man.

A particularly striking blonde woman exited the main doors of Xi International and phased right through Iron Man. She had neither seen nor felt his presence. He was completely invisible and completely intangible. She passed right through his left side without batting an eye.

Abe glanced over his shoulder at the attractive woman. "Not bad," he muttered.

The woman paused in mid stride and glanced back in his general direction, but did not focus directly on him.

_Oops_, Abe thought. _Way to go, dummy. You don't have sound dampeners installed, remember? You can't afford to slip up here, so maintain radio silence…no matter how hot the chicks are._

She turned away and continued strolling through the pathway to the parking lot. Iron Man turned his own attentions back where they belonged: on the entrance to the building. He knew that this was risky, especially since the tech was untested. In theory it would work, but that was all he had to go on. It was his experience that theories didn't always turn into paydays.

He checked the chronometer on his HUD. It steadily counted down to zero, at which point he would know if he was successful or not. Watching the numbers scroll down was maddening, but he had no choice in the matter.

He began walking forward as the clock reached six. When it hit four he was through the front doors and into the vestibule. When it hit two he was crossing through the lobby. When it hit one he was standing in front of the security desk.

Zero.

People were swarming around him, heading to various undisclosed locations in the building. This was a corporation, a keystone of the Japanese economy. Million dollar deals were happening all around him. He heard slices of conversation nearby and new that if he had been in the corporate espionage business that all he would have to do to get a few trade secrets was stand in the center of the lobby and listen.

A pair of security cameras shaped on either side of the front desk endlessly swept the lobby. When they both reached him they paused and he began to sweat. He knew that the Mandarin would have better measures in place than simply cameras.

Sure enough, his armor told him that a thermal scan was taking place and would soon unveil him. His chronometer was right, he was sure of it. Yet, nothing had happened. In a few more seconds he was going to be revealed and security would swarm around him. The Mandarin would know he was there and might try making a run for it.

_C'mon, Ironheart, let's go here…_

KA-DOOM!

The entire building shook. Everyone in the lobby stopped what they were doing. Iron Man began walking straight through the lobby again, phasing through the desk and through the guards.

_Thank you, Ironheart_, Abe thought. _I bet it hurt, but I appreciate it._

As Iron Man continued to simply stroll into the lobby, the cameras went haywire. With the flagrant activity swirling around them as the people began to panic, the cameras were now useless. They tried to track each random movements, which was impossible thanks to the overwhelming mass that was fleeing the building.

It didn't matter how many types of scanners the Mandarin had along the way. With all the commotion the readings couldn't be counted on and the security would surely be dispatched to the roof to deal with the problem that the others were brewing.

Sure enough, as Iron Man passed an elevator bank, six armed guards ran by to the emergency lift. They were armed for bear, but he was sure that it wouldn't be enough to deal with the Iron Man and the Young Avengers.

As he phased through the security desk, his systems automatically tapped into the database. It was easier than he imagined and he could see why the Ghost had been one of the top corporate espionage artists in the world. Given that his atomic structure was already phasing through the computer systems he didn't have to worry about hacking through the firewalls and countless other defenses to get the data he needed.

He simply dialed in using a standard connection, overrode the proxy server, and snatched the info as if it was sitting right in front of him. Felix Judd was a genius.

Schematics for the entire building popped up on his viewscreen. Surprisingly, there was a bunker beneath the building. He looked around the lobby for the secret elevator access. A stenciled version of the schematics laid overtop of his HUD, matching up with what he saw in the lobby.

He pinpointed a secret elevator hidden within a support pillar and stalked over to it. With amazing ease, he stepped inside the pillar by phasing through the marble shell, and found himself drifting slowly downward inside the elevator shaft.

He kept track of his location on the blueprints and allowed his anti-grav engine to lower him safely through the shaft. He was careful to watch his power levels, and even though the cosmic cube was granting him an amazing amount of energy to power the armor with, his system could only handle so much. The cloaking field and intangibility field were draining the stored power as quickly as it was being inputted. The cube could replenish the reserves within seconds, but he would have to switch the fields off when the fight started or else risk being weaponless.

After almost two minutes of dropping straight down, he finally saw the bottom of the shaft. He estimated that he was nearly four hundred feet below ground level. He could see light at the end of the shaft, poking through into the darkness.

He dropped down and switched off his anti-grav engine. The fewer signatures he gave out the better. The Mandarin was one of the most powerful men alive and he couldn't take any chances, especially not when he was inside the belly of the beast.

He stepped out of the corridor, invisible and intangible, and was in awe of his surroundings. If the above building was the state of the art business center, this was the exact opposite. Towering pillars supported the ceiling, with each pillar surrounded by a ring of fire that provided light to the underground cavern. A red carpet was at his feet, stretching down between the massive pillars toward the epicenter of the chamber.

He followed the carpet, inspecting the various statues and shrines along the way between the pillars. It was a testament to the Old Ways, the lost years of Feudal China, and the concepts that made the Mandarin the man he was today.

At the end of the carpet he saw a throne made of solid gold. He expected to see the Mandarin sitting there, waiting for him, but realized that was foolish. More than likely what had happened was upon being directly attacked, the Mandarin fled.

A wall of force suddenly shoved Iron Man aside off the carpet, slamming him into one of the pillars. The structure shook, but held fast. Iron Man's alarms were blaring inside his helmet, but he couldn't get a lock on what had attacked him.

He was amazed that something had been able to move him like that when he was supposed to be intangible. Maybe he had placed too much faith in Felix Judd.

"I assume you're one of the Iron Men," a bodiless voice spoke. The way it reverberated around the chamber it was impossible to tell where it originated from. "A nice trick to get passed my security, but I assure you that I am much better equipped than they are."

Another battering ram of invisible force crushed Iron Man against the pillar and he nearly vomited inside his helmet. Realizing that he was only wasting power, power he would badly need in the fight, he switched off the fields and stood revealed against the pillar.

"Ah," the Mandarin said. "You. The pretender. Of course."

"Show yourself!" Abe cried out.

"Ironic, considering how you got here."

A white and blue ray leapt out of the darkness from behind the pillars, lancing toward Iron Man. He saw the attack coming out of the corner of his eye and moved more out of pure instinct that anything else. He kicked on his boot jets and propelled himself away just as the blast hit the pillar, covering it in thick ice.

A display of two hands came up on Abe's HUD, with associated information for each finger. The left pinky finger lit up, marking it as the finger that was adorned with the ice ray ring.

"Too much of a coward to face me in the light?" Iron Man said. "I figured that since I humiliated you so badly during our last encounter that you would want a personal rematch. Hiding in the shadows isn't your style, Mandarin."

"Very well." Iron Man's proximity alarm went off screeching just as the Mandarin appeared behind him. "If you wish to die all the quicker, then so be it."

The Mandarin tackled him around the waste and drove him into the far wall. He drove his feet into the side of Iron Man's ribs, where the armor wasn't as layered, and Iron Man gasped from the force of the blow. He felt a rib crack beneath the strike.

The Mandarin floated behind Iron Man, holding him against the wall with the invisible force that was his to command. Iron Man's HUD told him that the right index finger held the impact beam, which was the same power that he crushed him against the pillar.

"So often do people forget my true power," the Mandarin said. "It lies not within these ten rings, but within the years of honed martial arts skill. I can shatter your armor by striking at its weak points, pretender. I will peel it off you like a grape."

The Mandarin intensified the power coursing through the impact beam, slowly crushing Iron Man against the wall inside his armor. "I enjoyed detecting you," the Mandarin continued. "Did your friends give you this new technology? I've seen similar cloaking fields like it, but nothing so advanced. If not for my mento-intensifier detecting your presence, and my white light adjusting the intangibility field around you, you would have been untouchable."

The left ring finger and left thumb marked the rings on Iron Man's HUD. He growled, both from the pain of being slowly crushed to death and the annoyance at his viewscreen. He didn't need to know just how he was dying, he just wanted to know how to get out of it.

"Holding the world hostage again?" Iron Man managed to say. "A little predicable, don't you think?"

"Hostage?" The Mandarin laughed. "You make assumptions. No, I don't care to take the world hostage. Why would I? I have money, power, fame; everything a man needs. The only thing I desire is what was taken from me: the destruction of Tony Stark."

"Stark's dead."

"Yes, and I was robbed of his death. But if killing Stark once was my life's desire, think of how fulfilled I will be when I kill an entire ship full of Starks?"

Abe's eyes went wide. The Mandarin had no intention of playing games, using the Citadel's engine as a bargaining chip. There would be no ransom or ultimatums. He intended all along make it a doomsday weapon. A no-win scenario.

"I finished decrypting the codes nearly half an hour ago," the Mandarin said. "I've already accessed the ship's systems and turned off the safeguards. The countdown has begun. You're too late."

The ship's engine was based on repulsor technology, and it could traverse dimensions. With the safeguards off, the engine would collapse on itself and completely inverse, creating a black hole above Japan.

Nothing would survive.

"You're insane!" Iron Man said. "You'll die too!"

"I've left myself enough time to get off planet. Once I kill you, I'll be light years away."

"No!"

Iron Man wedged his hands between his chestplate and the wall, and after bypassing all of the trigger guards, he let loose a full power burst of repulsor energy. The concussive force ripped him out from under the Mandarin's grasp and they fell end over end across the room.

They tussled as they fell, trading punches and kicks. The Mandarin drove his fists into the same spot near his ribs, and Abe felt several more fracture. He spit up blood onto his HUD inside the helmet, but he didn't care.

He fired his boot jets and enabled his gyroscopes, helping to gain control of the flight. He felt the Mandarin's rings trying to take control of the flight as well, but with his neural net in place, commanding his armor, he was faster at the manipulation.

He angled the Mandarin in front of him and kicked up the throttle, ramming him into another pillar at breakneck speed. He clutched the Mandarin's wrists in his hands and headbutted the Chinese villain, bouncing the back of his skull off of the stone pillar.

"I'm really sick of these damn rings," Iron Man said. "This should have been done a long time ago."

Iron Man began to squeeze the Mandarin's wrists. Blood spat out onto his red and gold armor, but he didn't care. The Mandarin screamed, and raw power began to seep out of the rings, swirling around them. A portion of the wall behind them flashed white with ice, and then was melted away by extreme heat. Another chunk was blown completely apart and yet another was enveloped by a bubble of pure darkness.

The original Iron Man would never have done such a cruel thing.

But Abe wasn't Tony Stark. He wasn't a pretender. He was his own man now.

He was the new Iron Man.

With a twist he completely severed both of the Mandarin's wrists, letting the rest of him drop to the ground below. He threw the hands away, complete with ten dead rings of power. They clattered to the ground, useless without a guiding master.

He saw the Mandarin under him, whimpering. He swayed back and forth for a moment before passing out from the pain of having his hands removed. Abe wanted to throttle him, but he didn't have time. Soon none of them would have any time left.

Iron Man dropped down to the golden throne. As he suspected, the arrogant Mandarin had an access computer built into the throne. Abe sat in the throne and instantly a holographic display appeared before him, showing the countdown that the Mandarin had set into motion.

"Shit," he swore under his breath. "There's less than a minute left. How the hell did he plan on getting light years away? Does he have a teleporter from Star Trek or something?"

Abe began to rapidly run through the options in the holographic display. He had complete access to the Citadel's systems, but it only took him a second to realize that what the Mandarin had set into motion could not be undone.

The only thing he could do was tweak the program. The engine had been initialized, but it hadn't run completely through the start up sequence yet. He could head the program off at the pass, so to speak, before the engine finished running through it.

He was a good programmer, but this was a whole other level. He doubted he could pull it off, but he had to try.

He opened the coded files for the program that the Mandarin had overwritten, searching through the code as quickly as possible. He saw the initiation command and dropped down below, toward the end of the sequence. He wasn't sure if this was the correct place to input his new string of code, but he didn't have time to second guess himself.

Hastily, he input the commands to reroute the repulsor energy. Since the sequence had already started, he couldn't shut it down. But he could keep it from inverting. All he had to do was endlessly reroute the system, looping back in on itself from beginning to end.

He had effectively created a paradox in the engine's programming. He quickly closed out the file and saved his work. The countdown only had a few seconds left. He closed his eyes and waited.

The world didn't end.

He opened his eyes and released the air he had been holding in. The countdown held steady at zero and he wasn't dead. He felt it was safe to assume that the rest of the world was still intact, too.

He felt the stress melt out of his body. He had done it. It hadn't been clean, but it had been quick. The end result was all that mattered. He was sure that a lot of the Iron Men would be pissed at him for what he had just done, but it was a lot better than the alternative.

He glanced over at the unconscious Mandarin, who was lying in a pool of his own blood. He would cauterize the stumps that had been his wrists, saving the man's life. He didn't want to, but he would. At the very least he could take satisfaction that the Mandarin would never be the same again.

"Abe, you slick devil," Iron Man said to himself as he stood up from the throne. "You just saved the whole world."

* * *

"For a moment in the lobby I thought you guys had forgotten about me."

Iron Man was flying over the New York City skyline, heading back to his apartment. Displayed in his HUD were Iron Lad, James Rhodes, and a wide view of the bridge of the _Citadel_. Iron Woman, Ironheart, and several other of the Iron Men gazed back at him through the digital feed.

"Nay," Ironheart said from behind Iron Woman. "Merely took a moment for my bulk to drop like a stone into the top of the building."

"You should have seen it," Iron Lad added through his connection in the conference call. "When Ironheart stepped off the support platform I thought that Patriot was going to throw up. He just stepped into the open air like it was nothing."

"It _was_ nothing," Ironheart replied. "It was my duty as a member of this proud militia. The roof of that building was nothing compared to that dragon the Mandarin sent after us before."

Iron Man imagined Ironheart dropping three miles straight down into the Xi Corporation. From what his sensors had picked up from inside the building he must have punctured down all the way through seventeen floors before stopping. To say that a drop like that was nothing was either a testament to Ironheart's armor, or his bravery.

He wished that he had seen the brawl between the Iron Man, the Young Avengers, and the Mandarin's security forces. With an entire battalion of the android dragons at his command, the Mandarin had amassed a force to be reckoned with. While Abe had been deep below the surface securing their future, the rest of the collective heroes had been securing their present.

"We owe you guys," Rhodey said. "All of you."

"Just use the technology we gave you wisely," Iron Woman said. "We won't be here to make sure it is used properly."

"Yeah…about that," Abe began to say, but Iron Woman waved off his apology.

"You did what you had to do. We'll be making our interdimensional jump in the next few seconds. We'll figure a way to reroute the program just like you did. Then we'll eventually make our way back to your dimension."

"So this isn't goodbye then?" Abe asked.

"Hardly. We may be caught in an endless loop of jump cycles, but we'll get back here sooner or later. You're a tribute to the Iron Man name. Keep up the good work while we're gone."

"Take heart!" Lord Iron said. "You are a true hero."

"It was an honor to fight by your side," Ironheart added.

Iron Man 213 stepped up beside Iron Woman. He had been the first person from the _Citadel_ that Abe had met. His black and red armor was scorched from the many battles against Apocalypse in his home dimension, but he wore the armor with pride. His helmet was in his arms, and the face of Tony Stark looked out to Abe.

"I agree," he said. "You deserve to wear that armor a lot more than some of the Tony Starks that I've met. See you around, partner."

The feed from the _Citadel_ died out. A minor signal inside Iron Man's HUD told him that the interdimensional energy signature had flared and that the _Citadel_ had made their forced jump out of their dimension.

"So they'll be bouncing through realities until they figure out how to undo your scrambled coding?" Rhodey asked.

"Better than a black hole," Iron Lad said.

"It certainly is, but I'm sure they're going to be in for a bumpy ride. Now…Iron Lad, was it? Let's talk about bring you and your partners in for debriefing."

"That won't be necessary," the teenager said. "We've been able to—"

"Yeah! We don't have to do nothing you say! We're the Young Avengers! Recognize!"

Asgardian was jumping up and down behind Iron Lad, waving his arms frantically. Patriot jumped on top of him, pinning him to the ground, and muttering some type of warning as he shook his finger in the teenager's face.

"We'll set something up another time, Mr. Rhodes," Iron Lad said, just before cutting off his own feed.

"You get a lock on them?" Iron Man asked.

"Yeah. They're in an abandoned subway station under NYC. You want me to send you the coordinates?"

"Nope," Abe replied. "They did okay. They helped me out when I was pinned by the Iron Maniac. Well, maybe not the Thor wannabe."

"The Iron Maniac is secure on the _Citadel_, right? So he's off the grid for now."

"They threw him in with the zombie, so yeah, I'd say he's secure." Abe saw Rhodey's face and quickly added, "Don't ask. SHIELD pick up Mandarin?"

Rhodes nodded. "Fury wasn't happy that he was playing catch-up, but the Mandarin is out of commission and his rings are locked up in a strongroom. He won't see the outside of the Vault for a very long time. That was some nasty stuff you did to him, messing him up that way."

"I did what I had to do."

Rhodey leaned toward the camera. "Abe, you really don't have to justify yourself to me. I agree with Tony…whichever one that was. You earned the armor a long time ago. You're your own man, and your own hero. Lord knows I've done some questionable things, but I ain't no hypocrite. You did good today."

"I'll let you to your toys then. Have fun reverse engineering your new c-tech you downloaded from the _Citadel_."

"C-tech? I like that. I'll have my secretary patent the name. See you around, Abe."

Iron Man closed off the communiqué and punched up his throttle. All he wanted to do was go home, shed the armor, and take a bath. He would close in on Iron Lad and the others soon enough, but for now he just wanted to relax.

He figured that he had earned that much at least. Saving the world was tiresome…

…but he could get used to it.

* * *

**NEXT ISSUE:** No rest for the weary as Iron Man finds himself thrown into a new brawl between the Young Avengers and…the Beetle? Plus, a blast from Abe's past shows up on his doorstep, and she's ready to rock.


End file.
